Leonardo Cohen,
MD, FASNR
   

Getting to know Dr. Cohen...

Dr. Leonardo Cohen received his MD from the University of Buenos Aires. He did his neurology residency at Georgetown University and received postdoctoral training in clinical neurophysiology at the Department of Neurology, University of California (Irvine) and in motor control and movement disorders at the Human Motor Control Section, NINDS.

In 1998 he became chief of the Human Cortical Physiology Section, NINDS. He received the prestigious Humboldt award (1999) from the Republic of Germany and is an elected member of the American Neurological Association.

Dr. Cohen's lab is interested in the mechanisms underlying plastic changes in the human central nervous system and in the development of novel therapeutic approaches for recovery of function based on the understanding of these mechanisms.

Q: Who had the greatest influence on you during your childhood?
A: My mother

Q: Do you have children?
A: Two girls and a boy

Q: What is your favorite book?
A: "Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges

Q: What factors influenced your career choice?
A: My ignorance on how the brain works

Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: “The great dictator” Charlie Chaplin

Q: Who is your favorite musical artist?
A: Possibly Mercedes Sosa

Q: If you could be or do anything else for a career – what would it be?
A: Painter

Q: If you could live in any other time, what would that be?
A: Between the First and Second wars in Paris.

Q: If you could have dinner with anyone, living or not, who would that be?
A: Pablo Neruda

Q: If they made a movie of your life story what would it be called?
A: Boring

Q: What is your favorite food?
A: Fruits

Q: Best professional advice anyone has given you?
A: “If you can not explain your work to a teenager in a way he/she understands it ... it is because you don’t understand it”  
Arnold Starr (a spectacular, unbelievable guy, my friend and my mentor during my first postdoc)

Q: What is the first thing you do when you wake up/start your day?
A: Hiking-like training for 30 min.

Q: What is one important skill every person should have?
A: Reality testing

Q: Share a personal fact no one would ever guess about you.
A: I assume i am wrong until proven otherwise.

Q:  What is your favorite thing about your career?
A: The many wonderful friends all over the world and the joy of seeing past students succeed.

Q: What's your favorite holiday?
A: Summer in the beach

Q: What's the most unusual thing you've ever eaten?
A: Desert: skorpion “au chocolat".

Q: What do you do to keep fit?
A: Lead hikes in the Shenandoah.  Daily hiking-like training