M. Richard Koenigsberger Memorial Lecture
This lecture was established in 2018 in honor of Dr. M. Richard Koenigsberger who passed away on February 17, 2013.
Richard Koenigsberger was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1933. He completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University, medical school at University of Chicago, and his internship and two years of pediatric residency at what is now NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC). He interrupted his professional education to be among the first to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. Following his service, he completed a fellowship in neonatal neurology and trained at the Centre des Rechersches Neonatales (CRN), where he studied neonatal neurophysiology under the famous mentor Madame Collette Dreyfus-Brisac. He returned to CUIMC where he completed an NIH-sponsored fellowship in neurology and pediatric neurology under the mentorship of Dr. Sydney Carter.
From 1968 to 1980, Dr. Koenigsberger remained on faculty at CUIMC and served as a principal investigator of multiple studies, including a United Cerebral Palsy-funded neurophysiology study of high-risk full-term and premature newborns. From 1980 to 1999, he served as the chief of pediatric neurology at the New Jersey Medical School (part of the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey). In 2000, he returned to NYP/CUIMC and served as a Clinical Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and Director of the Child Neurology Resident Clinic until his retirement in 2012.
Dr. Koenigsberger had exceptional skills in neonatal neurologic examination. His 1966 article in the Pediatric Clinics of North America journal was arguably the first superb summary of neonatal neurologic examination published in the United States. His honors have included Teacher of the Year at Harlem Hospital (1972–1973) and the Santiago Ramón y Cajal Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Ibero-American Academy of Pediatric Neurology (2000). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Child Neurology Society in 2012. He carried his expertise throughout the United States, as well as to cities in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, and Spain. Dr. Koenigsberger was also a natural linguist and fluent in both Spanish and French.
Among his most important contributions to the field of child neurology was a lifetime of exceptionally active and effective teaching and mentoring of generations of future child and adult neurologists. Indeed, Dr. Koenigsberger’s devotion to teaching remains legendary.
Most recent 2023 lecture information:
“Niemann-Pick C - Three Decades of Progress and Pitfalls”
Marc C. Patterson, MD, FRACP, FAAN, FANA
Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics and Medical Genetics
Chair of the Division of Child and Adolescent Neurology
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Dr. Marc Patterson was born and educated in Australia, and trained in neurology, child neurology and neurometabolic disease at the University of Queensland in Australia, at Mayo Clinic, and at NINDS/NIH. He is currently Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics and Medical Genetics at Mayo Clinic. He was Director of the Child Neurology Training program at Mayo Clinic (2008-2016), and Chair of the Division of Child and Adolescent Neurology (2008-2017). Dr. Patterson had previously served as Professor and Director of Pediatric Neurology at Columbia University in New York (2001-2007).
Dr. Patterson is currently an Editor for the Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease, and JIMD Reports, Editor-in Chief of the Journal of Child Neurology and Advisory Editor of Child Neurology Open.
Dr. Patterson is physician scientist whose research interest focused on rare diseases in children, including neurometabolic disorders in general; with special interest in Niemann-Pick disease, type C (NPC), other lysosomal diseases, and congenital disorders of glycosylation, and multiple sclerosis, areas in which he has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. His latest work has focused on the development of novel small molecule therapies for LSDs. He was the principal investigator of a prospective trial of miglustat in NPC and of a retrospective study of the use of miglustat in NPC in clinical practice. Dr Patterson is also participating in the development of therapeutic protocols for metachromatic dystrophy and globoid cell leukodystrophy.
He serves on the scientific advisory boards of several rare disease foundations and has been the recipient of funding support from NIH, industry, and private foundations.