Richard J. “Rich” O’Brien, MD, PhD, will join the Duke University School of Medicine as chair of the Department of Neurology, effective July 1, 2014.
Dr. O’Brien is Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Medicine and chair of the Department of Neurology at the Bayview Campus of The Johns Hopkins Medical Center. He also serves as associate dean for research at Johns Hopkins Medicine. His current research focuses on the effect of aging and neurodegenerative disorders on brain plasticity in animals and humans. In addition to his research, Dr O’Brien is an active clinician, treating patients with neurodegenerative and cerebrospinal fluid disorders.
Dr. O’Brien received his undergraduate degree, MD and PhD at Harvard University. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a residency in neurology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is a member of the leadership teams of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and the BIOCARD study and has received multiple NIH and foundation grant awards. He is actively involved with the McKnight and Simons foundations. Dr. O’Brien has received four awards in recognition of his teaching while on the faculty at Johns Hopkins.