Bio:

Christopher Walsh is Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Dr. Walsh completed his MD and PhD degrees (with Ray Guillery) at the University of Chicago, neurology residency and chief residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and postdoctoral training at Harvard with Connie Cepko. He has held the Bullard Professorship at Harvard since 1999 and joined Children’s Hospital as Chief of Genetics in 2006. Dr. Walsh’s research has focused on the development, evolution, and function of the human cerebral cortex, pioneering the analysis of human genetic diseases that disrupt the structure and function of the cerebral cortex by fostering worldwide collaborations with physicians and families. His laboratory has identified genetic causes for more than twenty brain diseases of children associated with autism, intellectual disability, seizures, and cerebral palsy, and has discovered that some of these disease genes were important targets of the evolutionary processes that shaped the human brain. The work has been recognized by the Jacob Javits Award from the NINDS, the Dreifuss-Penry Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the Derek Denny-Brown and the Jacoby Awards from the American Neurological Association, the American Epilepsy Society’s Research Award, the Krieg Award from the Cajal Club, and the Wilder Penfield Award from the Middle Eastern Medical Assembly. He is an elected member of the American Neurological Association, the American Association of Physicians, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.