Hal Blumenfeld, MD, PhD, FANA
Yale University
Dr. Hal Blumenfeld is the Mark Loughridge and Michele Williams Professor, Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine, as well as director of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Imaging Center (CNIC). He is also a member of the Yale Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Core Center for Quantitative Neuroscience with Magnetic Resonance, Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP), Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Blumenfeld graduated cum laude in 1984 from Harvard University with a B.A. in Bioelectrical Engineering and Columbia University with a M.A., in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics (1988), Ph.D., in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics (1990), and a M.D. (1992). He then completed his internship in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center followed by a neurology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and ultimately completing an epilepsy fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Blumenfeld is a proven scientist and has won a number of prestigious awards for his research, which focuses on the use of cutting edge technology and epilepsy as a model system for investigating consciousness to understand how epilepsy disrupts thinking, so that normal brain function can be restored. His research methods combine powerful brain imaging techniques, electrical measurements, and testing of behavior to investigate brain activity when consciousness is transiently impaired during epileptic seizures, as well as longer-term effects on mental function even when seizures are not present. Insights gained through this approach can help restore normal consciousness and real-world function to people with epilepsy, as well as in other related brain disorders.