David G. Standaert, MD, PhD

Dr. Standaert graduated from Harvard College and received M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. Following Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, he was appointed a Howard Hughes Fellow and completed a three-year research and clinical fellowship in Movement Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School from 1995 to 2006. He then relocated to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was the founding director of the UAB Killion Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics. From 2011 to 2026, he served as the Chair of the UAB Department of Neurology. He was appointed UAB Vice President for Research on October 1, 2026. He remains a senior member of the faculty of the Division of Movement Disorders and has an active clinic practice. In addition, he is Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the American Parkinson Disease Association, a Chief Editor of the journal Movement Disorders, and a Fellow of both the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association. He has previously served as a Director and Vice President of the American Neurological Association, Vice President of the Association of University Professors of Neurology, and as a member of the NINDS Board of Scientific Counselors. He was recently appointed as a member of the inaugural Federal Advisory Council on Parkinson's Research, Care and Services (ACPRCS).