FROM THE OFFICE OF THE CHAIR: Dr. Raymond Roos' Retirement

Dear Colleagues,
 
It is with a mix of gratitude and sadness that I am announcing the retirement of Dr. Raymond P. Roos, who served as Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Chicago from 1996 to 2004. He also served as the Director of our ALS Center of Excellence for many years and was the Co-Director of the Center for Motor Neuron Disease at the Neuroscience Institute.
 
Dr. Roos is a renowned physician-scientist recognized for his crucial work on neurovirology and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). One of his seminal contributions was identifying molecular mechanisms that are mediated by mutations of SOD1 and C9orf72 in the pathogenesis of ALS. He has published more than 170 papers in high impact journals and has served on several editorial boards, grant review committees, and advisory committees. He was the recipient of the Donald W. Mulder award from the ALS Association and the Dr. Frank L. Babbott Memorial Award from SUNY.
 
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Roos graduated from SUNY Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine and did two years of research in the laboratory of the Nobel laureate Dr. D. Carleton Gajdusek, before going to Johns Hopkins University to complete his neurology residency in 1974.  After his fellowship in neurovirology and neuroimmunology at Johns Hopkins, he was recruited by Dr. Barry Arnason to join the newly established Department of Neurology at UChicago in 1976. He rose through the ranks quickly, becoming a professor in 1986 and later the Marjorie and Robert E. Straus Professor in Neurological Science in 2001.
 
Dr. Roos was an outstanding clinician and mentor for our residents, fellows, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars. During his term as chairman, he instituted weekly “Roos Rounds” for complex cases on the inpatient service. Dr. Roos was a multifaceted colleague with a myriad range of interests, including movies, bicycling on the lake shore, and the literature and art of New Guinea, where he studied transmissible prion disease and toxin-induced Parkinson-dementia.
 
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Roos on his many contributions to the fields of neurology, neuroscience, and to our institution. He will remain on faculty as the Marjorie and Robert E. Straus Professor Emeritus of Neurological Science. We wish Dr. Roos all the best in retirement.
 
Shyam
 
Shyam Prabhakaran, MD, MS, FAHA, FANA
James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Professor 
Chair of Neurology
The University of Chicago Biological Sciences