Ted Dawson received his medical degree and Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Utah School of Medicine. He then completed an internship in medicine at the University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals before going to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for a neurology residency. He came to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he completed a fellowship in neuroscience and a senior clinical fellowship in movement disorders.Dawson’s honors include the Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award, the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar Award, the Santiago Grisolia Medal, and a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award.  He was elected to the Association of American Physicians and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Neurological Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Heart Association. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dawson’s laboratory focuses on neurodegenerative diseases. He pioneered the role of nitric oxide (NO) in neuronal injury in stroke, glutamate excitotoxicity and Parkinson’s disease.  He elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which NO kills neurons through the actions of poly (ADP-ribose) (PAR) polymerase and discovered a unique cell death pathway designated parthanatos.  His laboratory has made important discoveries on how neurons die in genetic and sporadic models of Parkinson’s disease.  Dr. Dawson’s discoveries are enabling clinical strategies for disease modifying therapies for Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease as well as other neurodegenerative diseases.