Elan D. Louis

[Author Photo]The readers and staff of Seminars in Neurology are privileged to be provided with an outstanding issue on the neurological exam and its historical background under the guest editorship of Dr. Elan D. Louis. Dr. Louis is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Sergeivsky Center and Department of Neurology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, he attended medical school at Yale and then received a masters degree in epidemiology from the Columbia University School of Public Health. He spent a year at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the Eukaryotic Molecular Genetics Section and then obtained residency training in neurology at the New York Neurological Institute at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in movement disorders and neuroepidemiology.

Dr. Louis' clinical duties center around disorders of aging, particularly involuntary movement disorders, with an academic interest in epidemiology and pathogenesis. His research focuses on the genetic basis for essential tremor and the potential role of environmental neurotoxins.

Dr. Louis serves on the editorial boards of Movement Disorders and the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, and he is a reviewer of the major neurology journals. He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Louis has directed some remarkable educational courses at the American Academy of Neurology, including one entitled "Battle of the Titans: The Great Debates of 19th Century Neurology" and the course "Peeking over Babinski's Shoulder: Making Rounds with the Creators of the Neurological Examination."

Living in Westchester, New York with his wife, Vinita Sehgal, a transplant nephrologist, and their two sons, Devin and Ravi, Dr. Louis is an artist and has exhibited his pieces and sold them in auction. He also plays several musical instruments including the lever (Celtic) harp, the Scottish Highland bagpipes, and the shuttle pipes. As an avid bagpiper, he is a member of the Kearny Caledonian Pipe Band, which performs throughout New Jersey.

Elan, we are grateful for the words and ideas that you and your colleagues have collected for us in this issue of Seminars in Neurology.