Richard Restak (born 1942) is an American

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

neuropsychiatrist Neuropsychiatry or Organic Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neuro ...

, author and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

Education

Restak is a graduate of

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...

and

Georgetown University School of Medicine Georgetown University School of Medicine, a medical school opened in 1851, is one of Georgetown University's five graduate schools. It is located on Reservoir Road in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, adjacent to the University's ...

. He performed his postgraduate training in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

at St. Vincent's Hospital (

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

), where he completed his

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

. His first psychiatric residency was also in New York City at Mount Sinai Hospital. This was followed by two residencies in Washington, D.C.: a psychiatric residency at

Georgetown University Hospital MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...

and a residency in neurology at George Washington University Hospital.

Career

Restak maintains a private

medical practice Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

in neurology and neuropsychiatry in Washington, D.C., where he is also a Clinical

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Neurology at George Washington Hospital University School of

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

and

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

. He has to date written 20 books on various aspects of the human brain; two were on The New York Times Best Sellers List. His first bestseller, ''The Brain'' (1984), was also the first companion book he wrote for a PBS series. ''The Mind'' (1988) was another PBS companion book and was his second bestseller. He has written articles for various national newspapers and has appeared on

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

programs. He has penned dozens of articles for national newspapers including: ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''USA Today'', and ''The Huffington Post''. He has contributed brain and neuroscience-related entries for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and the ''Encyclopedia of Neuroscience''. He is a Clinical Professor of Neurology at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. As a regular lecturer, both nationally and internationally, he has presented commentaries for both Morning Edition and All Things Considered on National Public Radio and made numerous appearances on leading television talks shows including: the ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...

'', '' Good Morning America'', the Discovery Channel, and the ''

PBS NewsHour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events. Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the pro ...

''. He has appeared as an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

for the defense in the high-profile trial of Mir Aimal Kasi, the Pakistani national charged with the 1993 shootings at CIA headquarters in

Langley, Virginia Langley is an unincorporated community in the census-designated place of McLean in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Langley is often used as a metonym for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as it is home to its headquarters, the Geo ...

. During the trial Restak testified that Kasi was missing tissue from his

frontal lobes The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the parietal lobe and the temporal lobe). It is parted from the parietal lobe by a groove betwe ...

, a congenital defect that affected his ability to judge the consequences of his actions.CNN
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Bibliography

*''Pre- Meditated Man '', 1977 *''The Brain: The Last Frontier'', 1980 *''The Self Seekers'', 1982 *''The Brain'', 1984 *''The Infant Mind'', 1986 *''The Mind'', 1988 *''The Brain Has a Mind of Its Own'', 1991 *''Brainscapes: An Introduction to What Neuroscience Has Learned About the Structure, Function, and Abilities of the Brain'', 1995. *''Receptors'', 1995 *''The Modular Brain'', 1995. *''Older and Wiser'' 1999 *''The Longevity Strategy: How to Live to 100 Using the Brain-Body Connection'', 1999 (co-author: David Mahoney) *''Mysteries of the Mind'', 2000 *''Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot'', 2001. *''Poe's Heart and the Mountain Climber '', 2004 *''The New Brain:'', 2004 *''The Naked Brain'', 2007 *''Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance'', 2009. *''The Big Questions: Mind'', 2012.

Companion books to PBS series

*''The Secret Life of the Brain'', 2001. *''The Brain'' 1984

References

External links