William F. Brown, MD
AANEM 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr. William F. Brown is an outstanding clinican-scientist. He has shown consistent excellence throughout his career as a clinician, educator, and investigator and as a strong advocate of the AANEM. Those who have worked with him have characterized him as having an exceptionally astute clinical acumen and a compassionate devotion to patients. Other specialists in the field keenly seek his clinical observations.

As a teacher, he has mentored many MD and PhD candidates who have made their own significant contributions to clinical neurophysiology and the care of patients with neuromuscular diseases. His clinical trainees have included speicalists in both neurology and physical medicine and rehabilitation.

His colleagues have recognized his teaching abilities by inviting him to present workshops, lectures, and keynote addresses, many of them at AANEM meetings. He is the author of two major textbooks on electromyography and has been on the editorial board of Muscle & Nerve.

Dr. Brown’s research productivity is reflected in over 160 peer-reviewed publications in addtition to numerous book chapters. He has contributed substantively to the understanding of motor unit physiology, including the development of several techniques for estimating the number of motor units in various muscle groups. Other significant contributions include his descriptions of the axonal form of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, studies designed to assess the impact of demyelination on transmission in human peripheral neuropathies, and the localization and characterization of the pathophysiological abnormalities in human entrapment neuropathies. Dr. William F. Brown in nominated unanimously by the Awards Committee to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.