Gregory Holmes, M.D., has been appointed the inaugural professor and chair of neurological sciences at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and as physician leader of neurology at Fletcher Allen Health Care, effective May 1, 2013. He will succeed Rodney Parsons, Ph.D., and Rup Tandan, M.D., who have shared leadership of the new department since August 2012.
The establishment of the Department of Neurological Sciences – a merger of the departments of neurology and anatomy and neurobiology – was approved by the UVM Board of Trustees in May 2011.
Holmes comes to UVM from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where he served as professor and chair of neurology and director of the Neuroscience Center. After joining Dartmouth in 2002 as professor of medicine and pediatrics and section chief of neurology, he became Dartmouth’s inaugural chair of neurology in 2009. Prior to joining Dartmouth, Holmes served as professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy program at Children’s Hospital Boston, where he also directed the Center for Research in Pediatric Epilepsy.
“Dr. Holmes is an outstanding scientist, clinician and teacher, as well as a dynamic leader and administrator with a successful track record for delivering top-notch patient care, directing strong clerkship and teaching programs, and leading well-funded translational research,” says UVM College of Medicine Dean Frederick C. Morin III, M.D.
An internationally recognized researcher in epilepsy, Holmes has led a number of ground-breaking studies that have resulted in greater understanding and new treatment options for the disease. He has published over 900 peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters, has given presentations on epilepsy around the world, and has had consistent funding from the National Institutes of Health. He has served on many editorial boards and committees, such as those at the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and the Institute of Medicine. He is an active member of numerous national organizations, including the American Epilepsy Society, for which he served as president in 2006. Holmes has received many awards including the American Epilepsy Society Research Award, the Pierre Gloor Research Award from the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, the Hoyer Lectureship from the National Institutes of Health and the Sachs Lectureship from the Child Neurology Society.
Holmes has a long history of mentoring and training undergraduate, graduate and medical students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows, and in 2011, was recognized with the 2011 Dartmouth College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. He is the principal investigator on a T32 Translational Neuroscience Postdoctoral Training Program grant designed to provide a translational research experience for clinicians training in neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry. Holmes is also the chief physician for Camp Wee Kan Tu, a camp for children with epilepsy.
After earning his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Holmes completed residencies in pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine and pediatric neurology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He joined the neurology and pediatrics faculty at the University of Connecticut Health Center, where he directed the Neurophysiology Laboratory at Newington Children’s Hospital, and subsequently moved to the Medical College of Georgia, where he was associate professor of neurology and director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Program. He was then recruited to Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital in 1988. Holmes also trained with Professor Yezekiel Ben-Ari at the Laboratoire de Neurobiologie et Physiologie du Développement at the Institut National de la Santé de la Recherche Medicale (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) in Paris, France in 1996.
Mark Phillippe, M.D., UVM professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, and Robert Pierattini, M.D., UVM professor and chair of psychiatry, led the search committee that conducted the national search to identify the new leader of neurological sciences and neurology.
The Department of Neurological Sciences is closely aligned with the UVM Neuroscience, Behavior and Health initiative.