Dr. Hal Blumenfeld appointed the Mark Loughridge and Michele Williams Professor of Neurology

Dr. Hal Blumenfeld, newly named as the Mark Loughridge and Michele Williams Professor of Neurology, focuses his research on impaired consciousness in epilepsy and on epilepsy neuroimaging and electrophysiology.

The Blumenfeld Lab at the Yale School of Medicine investigates the changes in the brain when consciousness is impaired by epileptic seizures. Blumenfeld’s team uses powerful brain imaging techniques, electrical measurements, and testing of behavior. By understanding the mechanisms of consciousness, they hope to restore normal consciousness to patients with epilepsy and other brain disorders. The goal of the Blumenfeld Lab is to rapidly translate findings from the research lab to practical applications, thereby greatly improving quality of life.

A graduate of Harvard University, Blumenfeld earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He completed his internship in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (New York) and his neurology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston). He then served as a fellow in epilepsy at the Yale School of Medicine.

Blumenfeld held teaching positions at Harvard and Columbia before joining the Yale faculty in 1996 as an instructor in neuroanatomy. His teaching and administrative appointments at Yale include terms as director of medical studies in clinical neurosciences and, currently, as director of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Imaging Center. He holds professorships in the Departments of Neurology, Neurobiology, and Neurosurgery.

Blumenfeld is the author of “Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases” and co-editor of “Neuroimaging of Consciousness,” as well as “Neuronal Networks in Brain Function, CNS Disorders, and Therapeutics.” He has contributed scores of research articles and chapters to edited volumes and journals, including Neuron, PNAS, Journal of Neuroscience, Neurology, Cerebral Cortex, and Epilepsia. His non-scientific publications include “Let’s Go: Greece, Israel & Egypt” and “Let’s Go: Europe.”

The Yale professor’s honors include the Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Research Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the Francis Gilman Blake Award, granted annually to a member of the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine designated by the senior class as the most outstanding teacher of the medical sciences, and the Graduate Mentor Award for the best mentorship of graduate students in the sciences at Yale University.