Ricardo Nitrini

Ricardo NitriniNeurologist graduated in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (FMUSP) in 1971, he completed the residency program in Neurology and was supervisor of residents in the Hospital das Clínicas-FMUSP from 1972 to 1976, and from then all his academical life has been closely linked to this institution. Since the beginning of the graduation course he had a deep interest for the then called Higher Nervous Activities, but his first studies, from which he received his master and later doctor degrees were on Neurosyphilis, while the publications in the area of special concern were limited to a few papers and chapters of books of more didactic characteristics or reviews of the literature. Only from the last years of the decade of 1980, when he initiate the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Unit at the Hospital das Clínicas-FMUSP, his activities were more concentrated on this area. With investigations performed in this unit he presented his thesis for obtaining the degree of professor in 1993. His researches focus on clinical epidemiology of dementia, with studies on diagnostic procedures based on neuropsychological tests, questionnaires and neuroimaging, and also on population epidemiologic investigations. He also studies prion diseases in association with the Ludwig Research Institute. In 1997, he created together with Prof. Paulo Caramelli, now at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, the Meeting of Researchers on Alzheimers Disease and Related Disorders, which is characterized by registering only through the submission of an abstract, and which has been repeated every two years with increasing number of participants. In 2003, he inaugurated the Reference Center for Cognitive Disorders of the Hospital das Clínicas-FMUSP, in association with Prof. Wilson Jacob Filho of the Geriatrics Service and with Prof. Cássio Machado de Campos Bottino of the Department of Psychiatry of the same institution, and this multidisciplinary unit he also do research and teaching activities for graduate, residents and post-graduate students. When the Brain Bank of Laboratory of Brain Ageing of the institution was inaugurated he became a member of the coordination for the study of the neuropathology of dementias. Besides his research activities he has been committed with educational programs for Neurologists and Neuropsychologists, editing books for graduate courses, organizing a continuous education program in Neurology, which has originated a series of books entitled Conducts in Neurology published every two years since 1989, writing chapters of books, and giving classes in graduate, residencies and post-graduate courses and in Brazilian and International symposiums and congresses. He is ex-coordinator of the Post-Graduate Program in Neurology of the University of São Paulo. He is a member of the editorial board of many Brazilian and International journals and the Editor-in-chief and founder of Dementia Neuropsychologia, the official journal of the Cognitive Neurology and Ageing Department of the Brazilian Academy of Neurology and of the Brazilian Association of Geriatric Neuropsychiatry. He is Full professor of Neurology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo since February 2012. He is the President of the Scentific Committee of the Brazilian Academy of Neurology (Source: Lattes Curriculum)