Michel Ferrari

Abstract Guest Lecture: "Migraine, from myths to hereditary brain disorder"

Michel D. Ferrari, MD, Ph.D. is Professor of Neurology, Chair of the Leiden Centre for Translational Neuroscience at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), and Past- President of the International Headache Society (IHS).

He received his MD in 1980, his speciality certificates in Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology in 1985, and his Ph.D. on “Serotonin and Migraine” in 1992 cum laude from LUMC (supervisors Profs. GW Bruyn & PR Saxena). He was a Research Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston with Prof. KMA Welch, and at Harvard Medical School with Prof. MA Moskowitz. Prof. Ferrari is a corresponding member of the American Neurological Association, Honorary Member of IHS and the Italian Society for the Study of Headache, and has received numerous awards incl. The Arnold Friedman Distinguished Clinician Researcher Award and The Harold G. Wolff Award from the American Headache Society, The Migraine Trust Lecture from the British Migraine Trust, The Vici Innovational Research Personal Incentive Schema Award from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Winkler Award for Excellence in Neurological Research from the Dutch Neurological Association, and in 2009 the NWO Spinoza Prize, the highest Dutch award in science.

He is the Principal Investigator of the EC-sponsored EUROHEAD program in which 9 European centres collaborate to decipher the molecular neurobiology of migraine. Prof. Ferrari serves on the executive and scientific boards of many scientific organisations, is associate editor of Cephalalgia, Eur J Neurology and Headache Currents, and is a regular reviewer for many prestigious scientific journals. He has organised several congresses, incl. the 1997 IHS World Congress in Amsterdam, and has (co-)authored over 325 peer-reviewed publications and many books on clinical, genetic, and neurobiological aspects of headache, ataxia and other episodic brain disorders. He ranks among the top three scientists worldwide in total number of citations of papers published between 1997 – 2007 on “Migraine and Other Vascular Headaches”.