The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has named pediatric neurologist Nina Schor, M.D., Ph.D. as Deputy Director. Dr. Schor is expected to join the NINDS in January.
“Dr. Schor’s experience running a large university department and children’s hospital, along with her extensive basic research background and clinical work, make her an ideal candidate for this position,” said Walter Koroshetz, M.D., NINDS director. “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Schor and look forward to working with her to advance the NINDS’ mission as it relates to neuroscience and neurological disease research.”
Dr. Schor will join the NINDS from the University of Rochester, New York, where she served as chair of the department of pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief at Golisano Children’s Hospital.
The focus of Dr. Schor’s research has been on neuroblastoma, a type of pediatric cancer, and neuronal death caused by oxidative stress, which occurs when harmful forms of oxygen molecules damage cells. She was the principal investigator on numerous NIH-funded grants.
Over her career, Dr. Schor has mentored more than 80 post-doctoral fellows and graduate, medical, and undergraduate students. While at the University of Rochester, Dr. Schor was the first Director of the Translational Biomedical Science Ph.D. Program and played an integral role in developing the program and recruiting graduate students.
Dr. Schor has earned numerous awards and honors, including the American Neurological Association Distinguished Neurology Teacher Award, being named a Fellow at the American Academy of Neurology, and serving on the Board of Directors for Neurology at the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Dr. Schor has been an active member of many professional societies including the Society for Pediatric Research, American Society of Pediatric Department Chairs, and the American Neurological Association.
She earned a Ph.D. in medical biochemistry from Rockefeller University in New York City and her M.D. from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. Upon receiving her M.D., she completed residency programs in neurology and pediatrics at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Following her residencies, she was a professor, chief of child neurology and associate dean for medical student research at the University of Pittsburgh in PA.
In addition to her research work, Dr. Schor is a poet whose work has been published in the Neurology journal and in a poetry chapbook.
NINDS is the nation’s leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the NIH website.