Robert E. Burke Memorial Lecture
The Robert E. Burke Memorial Lecture was established in 2018 in honor to the memory and accomplishments of Dr. Robert Burke who passed on January 1, 2018 at the age of 68.
Dr. Burke was an outstanding clinical-scientist of the Department of Neurology and Pathology & Cell Biology at Columbia, highly recognized for his work in the molecular basis of neuronal programmed cell death in dopamine neurons and the neurobiology of their axons.
In his honor, the Department of Neurology and his wife, Dr. Sharon Wardlaw, established this lecture to stimulate studies on the cause and pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease and related disorders of the aging-brain.
Dr. Burke graduated from Dartmouth College in 1971 and obtained his MD from Cornell University Medical School in 1975. He received training in Neurology and Clinical Movement Disorders at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and was subsequently appointed to the faculty where he spent his entire professional career. He was the Alfred & Minnie Bressler Professor of Neurology and Pathology & Cell Biology. He served as Director of the Laboratories for Research in Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders and led the NIH supported Morris K. Udall Research Center. He had expertise in clinical movement disorders and the neurobiology of Parkinson’s Disease and contributed to the training of many students, residents and fellows. He held leadership positions in the American Academy of Neurology, the Movement Disorder Society and the World Parkinson Congress. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was the recipient of awards from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
