Kenneth M Heilman, MD
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
About Kenneth M Heilman
Dr. Kenneth M. Heilman received his M.D. degree from the University of Virginia in 1963 and subsequently spent two years training in Internal Medicine at Cornell University Medical Center (Bellevue). During the Vietnam War he joined the Air Force and was Chief of Medicine at NATO Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. When he was discharged from the service, he took a Neurology residency and fellowship at the Harvard Neurological Unit (Boston City) with Dr. Derek Denny-Brown and then with Dr. Norman Geschwind. After completing his residency and fellowship, he joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 1970, as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973 and Professor in 1975. He received an endowed chair in 1990 making him the first James E Rooks, Jr. Professor of Neurology. In 1998, he was in the first group of the faculty to be awarded the title of Distinguished Professor.
Between 1996 and 2009, he was Chief of the Neurology Service at the Gainesville VA. As Director of the Behavioral Neurology-Neuropsychology program he has helped to trained more than 70 post-doctoral fellows, the majority of who now hold academic positions and several are now leaders. His research has been supported by the NIH and/or the VA for more than 40 years. His primary clinical and research interests are in attentional, emotional, motor programming, language and memory disorders. He is the author/editor of 20 books, more than 115 chapters and more than 670 journal publications, with more than 60,000 citations (i-index 115). He and his coworkers have described several new diseases/disorders and their treatment such as orthostatic tremor.
His expertise as a clinician has been recognized by being listed in almost every edition of the Best Doctors in America as well as other publications. He is a past President and received a Distinguished Career Awards from the International Neuropsychology Society (INS) and also from the Society for Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology. He is an Honorary Member of the American Neurological Association. He is also a Fellow in the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and received the Wartenberg Keynote Lecturer Award from the AAN. The AAN had a program (2019) called “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.” This program highlighted the ”five Neuro Giants who will take us on their personal journey in neurology and how they have contributed to the evolution of neurology.” Dr. Heilman was one of the “Giants. ” In 2019, he was awarded the “Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Neuropsychology” award by the National Academy of Neuropsychology.
Teaching Profile
Clinical Profile
- Neurology