Dr. Stanley Fahn is a world-renowned neurologist and pioneering expert in movement disorders with a distinguished career at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He served as the H. Houston Merritt Professor of Neurology and Director of the Center for Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement Disorders at Columbia University for decades. After completing his residency at the Neurological Institute at Columbia University and a fellowship in neurochemistry research at the National Institutes of Health, he established himself as a leading authority in Parkinson's disease and movement disorders. As director of the Division of Movement Disorders, he significantly expanded the scope of the center to encompass comprehensive research and clinical care, building it into one of the nation's premier movement disorders programs. He stepped down as chief of the division in 2013 after decades of transformative leadership, leaving an enduring legacy in the field.
Dr. Fahn's groundbreaking contributions include founding and directing the first Dystonia Clinical Research Center in the United States, which was instrumental in determining the autosomal dominant inheritance pattern of torsion dystonia and mapping several genes for this disorder including DYT1, DYT5a, and DYT6. He co-created the Fahn-Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale with Dr. David Marsden, which remains the gold standard assessment tool used globally for evaluating dystonia severity and treatment response. His leadership in conducting the first controlled surgical trial for fetal tissue transplantation for patients with advanced Parkinson disease represented a significant milestone in the search for disease-modifying therapies. Dr. Fahn and his colleagues at Columbia University were awarded a Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health in 1999, cementing Columbia's position as a leader in Parkinson's disease research, and his clinical trial work earned him the Anne-Marie Opprecht Foundation Parkinson Award in 2005 for the most outstanding scientific work on Parkinson disease published between 2002 and 2004.
Dr. Fahn founded and served as the first president of the Movement Disorder Society, an international organization that has grown to become the premier professional society for specialists in movement disorders worldwide. He was the founding co-editor of the journal Movement Disorders, serving in this capacity for the first decade of its publication, which established a critical platform for disseminating research in this specialized field. His leadership extended to the American Academy of Neurology where he served as President from 2001-2003, significantly influencing neurological research and practice on a national scale. Dr. Fahn also served as Scientific Director of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and helped establish the World Parkinson Congress, bringing together patients, clinicians, and researchers in an unprecedented collaborative forum. Though now in emeritus status, his foundational work continues to shape contemporary research and clinical practice in movement disorders, with his methodologies and frameworks remaining integral to the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson's disease and related conditions worldwide.
