Alim Louis Benabid

Alim Louis Benabid
Alim-Louis Benabid, MD, PhD in conversation at a scientific conference in 2013
Born	(1942-05-02) May 2, 1942 (age 75)
Occupation	Neurosurgeon, researcher
Education	MD, PhD
Alma mater	Joseph Fourier University
Subject	Medicine, Physics

Alim Louis Benabid is a French emeritus professor, neurosurgeon and member of the French Academy of Sciences, who has had a global impact in the development of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. He became emeritus professor of biophysics at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble in September 2007, and chairman of the board of the Edmond J. Safra Biomedical Research Center in 2009 at Clinatec, a multidisciplinary institute he co-founded in Grenoble that applies nanotechnologies to neurosciences.

Alim Louis Benabid was born May 2, 1942 in Grenoble, France. The son of a doctor from Algeria and of a French nurse, Benabid was quoted as saying he could not easily decide between studying physics or medicine. He received his medical degree in 1970 and a doctorate in physics in 1978, both from Joseph Fourier University (now part of Universite Grenoble Alpes) in Grenoble. He became a staff neurosurgeon at Joseph Fourier University in 1972, professor of experimental medicine in 1978, and professor of biophysics from 1983 – 2007. Benabid also had a fellowship in 1979 – 1980 in preclinical neuropharmacology in the laboratory of Floyd Bloom at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. From 1988 – 2007, he directed the preclinical neurosciences unit at the French biomedical and public health research institution INSERM, and from 1989 – 2007, served as head of the neurosurgery department at the University Hospital of Grenoble. In other roles, Benabid coordinated the Claudio Munari Center for Surgery of Epilepsy and Movement Disorders at Ospedale (Hospital) Niguarda in Milan, Italy from 1998 to 2007, and was a staff consultant at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio from 2000 to 2003.