G. Milton Shy Visiting Professorship
The G. Milton Shy Visiting Professorship was established in honor of the memory and accomplishments of Dr. Milton Shy, who passed away on September 25, 1967, at the age of 47. It is a joint week-long professorship at the NIH, University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.
Dr. G. Milton Shy received his MD from the University of Oregon and completed his medical training at the National Hospital at Queen Square in London and the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado and while there also accepted the challenge of becoming the first Clinical Director of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB), now the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). During his 10 years at the NINDB he established many traditions of scholarship–one of which was the welcoming of visiting scientists from anywhere in the world for collaborative work.
Dr. Shy made numerous critical contributions to research – in his lab, through his service on the study sections of the NINDB, and as a member of the Editorial Board of Neurology. He was a pioneer in using electron microscopy to study muscle diseases and is credited with discovering five previously unrecognized diseases: central core disease, magaconial myopathy, pleoconial myopathy, myotubular myopathy and nemaline myopathy. His research was not limited to neuromuscular disorders; he also advanced radioisotopic localization of brain tumors and described the association of central nervous system disease and orthostatic hypotension –leading to the eponym Shy-Drager syndrome.
Dr. Shy’s devotion to scientific inquiry was matched by his passion for patient care. He demanded and provided an uncompromising standard of excellence. With apparently inexhaustible energy, he was also fiercely dedicated to education -becoming an inspiration to students, residents and staff of all the medical schools in the area.
Dr. Shy was lost at the height of his creativity but his legacy lives on –his former residents and fellows (and his Columbia-trained son, Michael Shy) now fill dozens of full-time academic appointments in neurology throughout the world.
2025 Lecture Information:
Cranial Axon Misguidance: From Humans to Mice and Mechanism
Date: June 13, 2025
Time: 1:15 - 2:15 PM
Location: Neurological Institute Auditorium, 710 West 168th Street, 1st Floor
Elizabeth C. Engle, MD
Professor of Neurology and Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School
Faculty in Neurology, Ophthalmology, and Medicine (Genetics & Genomics), Boston Children’s Hospital
Principal Investigator, F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center & Senior Associate, Department of Neurology
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Associate Member, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Dr. Engle received her B.A. from Middlebury College and her M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She then trained as an intern and resident in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, as a fellow in neuropathology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and as a resident in adult and child neurology in the Longwood Neurology Training Program and Boston Children’s Hospital. Nearing the end of her neurology residency, Dr. Engle cared for a toddler born with a complex eye movement disorder that segregated in his family as a dominant trait. Interested in the etiology of his rare disorder, she pursued a research fellowship in genetics. As a result, this little boy became the proband for Dr. Engle’s research career, which now spans from patients through genetics to molecular mechanisms to understand human cranial nerve and axon guidance disorders. Her work has defined the human congenital cranial dysinnervation disorders and has been recognized by high-profile publications and by receipt of multiple honors, including the E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics from the Society for Pediatric Research, Sidney Carter Award in Child Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology, Research Award for Vision from the Alcon Institute, and the Bernard Sachs Award from the Child Neurology Society, and election to the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In addition to her research, Dr. Engle continues to care for patients, primarily consulting for children and adults with rare eye movement and other cranial nerve disorders. She teaches in both the clinical and laboratory settings and has served on multiple committees that set the direction for neuroscience and ophthalmology research both locally and nationally.