Jun Li, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., has been appointed chair of the Wayne State University Department of Neurology, effective March 19.
Dr. Li, a professor of Neurology for the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, will become chair in March, according to the Jan. 10 announcement by Dean Jack D. Sobel, M.D. Dr. Li will also serve as the first scientific director of the Translational Neuroscience Initiative, or TNI, and "will play a pivotal role in this recently established research center on the WSU campus," Dean Sobel said.
Dr. Li will replace Kumar Rajamani, M.D., D.M., associate professor of Neurology, who has served as interim chair of the department since Dec. 1, 2017. Dr. Rajamani will continue to serve as interim chair until Dr. Li's arrival.
The appointment is a homecoming of sorts for Dr. Li, who served as an adjunct professor of Pathology from 2003 to 2009 and associate professor of Neurology from 2006 to 2009 for the School of Medicine. During that period he also directed the EMG Fellowship Program. At WSU, he was the recipient of both the WSU Faculty Research Excellence Award and the WSU Junior Faculty Award
He joined Vanderbilt as a tenured associate professor of Neurology in 2009 and was appointed tenured professor in 2015. He was named director of the Vanderbilt Medical Center's Charcot-Marie-Tooth Clinic in 2009, the same year he became a faculty member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute and Center for Human Genetics Research.
Dr. Li received his medical degree from Anhui Medical University in the People's Republic of China in 1985. He received his doctoral degree in Neurosciences in 1995 from the Drexel University College of Medicine (formerly Hahnemann University). He completed a Transitional Program internship in 1996 at Mount Carmel Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; a Neurology residency in 1999 at the Ohio State University; and an EMG/Neuromuscular Fellowship in 2000 in the Department of Neurology at University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Widely-published and strongly-funded, Dr. Li is member of the editorial boards for the Faculty of 1000 Medicine, Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, and Experimental Neurology. He serves as a reviewer for American Neurological Association meeting abstracts, the MDA study section, the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association Scientific Advisory Board, the Talia Duff Foundation Scientific Advisory Board and the Cure SPG47 Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. He is a member of the Neuromuscular Fellowship Committee at Vanderbilt, the Howard Kirshner Lecture Committee and the Vanderbilt Academic Integration Metric Task Force.
He has mentored numerous post-doctoral students, assistant professors, technicians, research assistants and students.
A member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American Academy of Neurology (fellow), the Peripheral Nerve Society, the American Neurological Association (fellow) and the American Society of Neurochemistry, Dr. Li has won numerous awards, including the David Kotlarek Award for excellence in patient care from Ohio State University and the 2014 Wolfe Research Prize from the American Neurological Association. He was named the 2017 Littlejohn Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University and in 2017 was a Featured Scientist at the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.