dennis w choi md phd born in ann arbor michigan was the jones professor and head of neurology at the center for the study of nervous system injury at washington university in st louis he was part of the team that treated christopher reeve following the actors notorious spinal cord injury at the end of 2001 he left the fulltime faculty to join merck research labs choi resigned from his position at merck in 2006choi grew up in watertown massachusetts attended harvard college from which he graduated in 1974 and went on to harvard medical school and the harvardmit division of health sciences and technology to receive an md and a phd in pharmacology in 1978 working with dr gerald d fischbach he demonstrated that benzodiazepines augment gabaa receptor function which represents a seminal discovery in neuroscience choi also completed his residency and fellowship in neurology at harvard while a faculty member at washington university choi was a key contributor to research on glutamatemediated toxicity excitotoxicity as a mechanism of neural injury in stroke and traumatic brain injuryhe currently sits on the boards of a number of national health and sciencerelated organizations and has published several papers in prominent journals including science and the journal of neuroscience choi also serves as a member of the scientific advisory board of the cure alzheimers fundfor a few months in 2006 choi played drums in the philadelphia area surf band surf and turfchoi arrived at emory university in august 2007 where he served as the director of the comprehensive neurosciences center and the neuroscience human nature and society initiative both of which are under the umbrella of emory healthcare he was also a professor in the departments of neurology and biologyin the spring of 2009 choi taught an undergraduate course entitled neurofunction and artificial intelligence for the emory university neuroscience behavioral biology programhe is currently the chair of the department of neurology at stony brook university school of medicine in long island new york