News Release

Boston University School of Medicine faculty member receives honorary degree from alma mater

Dr. Wolf awarded honorary degree

Grant and Award Announcement

Boston University

Boston – Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researcher Dr. Philip Wolf was a recipient of the Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science from his alma mater, State University of New York, Upstate Medical University. Wolf received the degree at the College’s recent commencement ceremonies in Syracuse, New York.

Wolf received his medical degree from the State University of New York College of Medicine at Syracuse in 1960 cum laude where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He was an intern in medicine at the former Boston City Hospital, an assistant resident in medicine at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and a resident in neurology and neuropathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

He trained in epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Medicine and served as senior assistant surgeon in the Field Epidemiologic Research Section, National Heart Institute, of the United States Public Health Service. Following receipt of a research fellowship in neuroepidemiology from the NINCDS at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined the faculty of Boston University in 1969. He is a professor of neurology, research professor of medicine (epidemiology and preventive medicine) at BUSM, and professor of public health (epidemiology and biostatistics) at Boston University School of Public Health.

Since1989, he has been principal investigator on the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Contract, The Framingham Study, Physical Examination, Testing and Surveillance awarded to BUSM; he was co-principal investigator from 1983 to 1989.

In 2002, after more than 30 years, he stepped down from the post of Chief of the Cerebrovascular Disease Section, Department of Neurology at Boston University Medical Center (BUMC). He has participated in a number of US and international cooperative clinical trials in stroke. He was a PI or Executive Committee member for several key projects: The NINDS Stroke Data Bank, TASS, BAATAF, NASCET, and CAPRIE.

He has served on Executive Committees and Data Monitoring Boards for a number of National Institutes of Health (NIH) and industry supported studies of stroke and cardiovascular diseases. He is a Fellow of the American Neurological Association, the American Epidemiologic Society, the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Academy of Neurology.

In 1992, he was selected by the NINDS Council to receive a Jacob A. Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, was the first to receive the Humana Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke of the AHAn Stroke Council, and delivered the Connor Memorial Lecture at the AHA. He presented the Daniel C. Gainey Lectureship in Stroke and Related Disorders in 1994 at the Mayo Foundation. He also received the Mihara Cerebrovascular Disorder Research Fund Award of the International Stroke Society (1996) and American Stroke Association New England Chapter’s C. Miller Fisher Award (2000). In addition, he was the William S. Fields Lecturer at the University of Texas-Houston, Health Science Center that same year. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award of the AHA at the annual meeting in 2006.

A stroke research grant, Precursors of Stroke Incidence and Prognosis has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke since 1981, Epidemiology of Dementia since 1989, and MRI, Cognitive and Genetic Precursors of Alzheimers Disease and Dementia since 1999 both from the National Institute on Aging.

Wolf ’s publications have focused on topics of the epidemiology of stroke, dementia and cognitive decline, authoring or co-authoring over 500 refereed articles, book chapters, and abstracts. He has served on a number of journal editorial boards.

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