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 2025 Lecture Information:
Neonatal Seizures: From Ideas to Evidence Honoring the Vision of Dr. M. Richard Koenigsberger
Hannah C. Glass, MDCM, MAS
Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco Director, Neonatal Neurocritical Care Services, UCSF Benoiff Children’s Hospital
Dr. Hannah Glass is a Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a neonatal neurologist, founding co-director of the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Neurointensive Care Nursery (NICN), and Director of Neonatal Critical Care Services at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, San Francisco. She is also the program director of the Neonatal Neurology Fellowship Program.
Dr. Glass specializes in brain-focused care for children with neurological conditions diagnosed in the newborn period, including hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, stroke and seizures, as well as brain injury following preterm birth. Dr. Glass has received funding from the NIH, March of Dimes, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation to conduct research that aims to improve developmental outcomes following newborn brain injury.