Lewis Phillip Rowland (August 3, 1925 – March 16, 2017) was an American neurologist. He served as president of the American Neurological Association (1980–81) and the American Academy of Neurology (1989–91), and was editor of the journal ''

Neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...

'' from 1977 to 1987. He authored over 500 scientific articles, with a research emphasis on

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS; also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), and

muscular dystrophy Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affe ...

. He was chair of the neurology department at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for 25 years, where he established the H. Houston Merritt Clinical Research Center for Muscular Dystrophy and Related Diseases as well as the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center. Rowland was born Lewis Phillip Rosenthal in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, the eldest child of Cecile Coles and Henry A. Rosenthal. His father changed the family name to Rowland when Lewis was a teenager, as colleges placed restrictions on the number of Jewish students at the time. Roland attended Brooklyn's

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Aca ...

before entering

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1945 and MD in 1948.

References

1925 births 2017 deaths American neurologists Columbia University faculty People from Brooklyn Yale University alumni Scientists from New York (state) Deaths from cerebrovascular disease Members of the National Academy of Medicine {{US-physician-stub