AlumniBulletin - The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Coming Home
NEUROLOGY CHAIR RETURNS TO UAB
By Russ Willcutt
His academic history suggests that Ray L. Watts, M.D.,
is a man who’s interested in systems, whether they be
the imprints of electrical circuit boards or the neurological
networks of the human body. Watts is a
renowned neurologist whose research focuses on movement disorders
such as Parkinson’s disease, but he also holds undergraduate
degrees in electrical and biomedical engineering. He will be putting
this diverse array of expertise to use as the new chair of the
Department of Neurology in the University of Alabama School of
Medicine at UAB.
“Dr. Watts is widely known for his skills as a clinician, a
researcher, and an administrator, and we’re delighted to welcome
him to our medical school,” says William B. Deal, M.D., vice president
and dean of the UASOM.
Accepting the position is a homecoming of sorts for Watts, who
earned his bachelor of science degree, with honors, from the UAB
School of Engineering in 1976. He then attended medical school
at Washington University in St. Louis, graduating with highest
honors in 1980. He spent the next four years at Massachusetts
General Hospital, where he completed his first-year medical and
neurology residencies. During both residencies, he was a clinical
fellow at the Harvard Medical School. He also was an electromyography
and motor-control fellow in the Clinical Neurophysiology
Laboratory from 1982 to 1983, a part-time resident member of
the Movement Disorders Clinic from 1982 to 1984, and chief
neurology resident from 1983 until 1984. He spent the next two
years as a medical staff fellow in the National Institute of Mental
Health Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institutes
of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
In 1986, Watts joined the Emory School of Medicine as an assistant
professor in the Department of Neurology. He was also named
director of the Movement Disorders Program and an attending neurologist
at Emory University-affiliated hospitals, the Emory Clinic,
and the Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital. He became an affiliate
scientist with the university’s Division of Neurobiology in 1987, at
the same time accepting the position of medical director of the
American Parkinson Disease Association’s (APDA) Information and
Referral Center for the state of Georgia, which is located at Emory.
He was then named co-director of the APDA’s Advanced Center for
Parkinson’s Research in 1990.
Watts became an associate professor in the Department of
Neurology at Emory in 1992 and was named full professor in 1998.
That same year he assumed the positions of vice-chairman for clinical
affairs, chief of the neurology service at Emory University
Hospital, associate head of the Section of Neurology at The Emory
Clinic, Inc., and chief of the neurology service at the Wesley Woods
Geriatric Center. In addition, Watts was awarded the A. Worley
Brown Chair in Neurology and was made director of the medical
school’s Clinical Trials Office.
Over the years, Watts has conducted research into the neural basis
of movement and postural disorders, including Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s diseases. He is certified by the American Board of
With an eye toward innovative new treatments for neurological conditions,
Ray L. Watts, M.D., hopes to increase knowledge of how
the human brain works.
Psychiatry and Neurology and a member of the American
Neurological Association, the Society for Neuroscience, and the
American Academy of Neurology, among others. He has been listed
in Woodward/White’s Best Doctors in America since 1994, and in
America’s Top Doctors, by Castle Connolly Medical, since 2000.
“These are very exciting times in neuroscience,” says Watts.
“We’re right on the brink of developing innovative new treatments
for neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s
disease, stroke, and brain cancer, and I look forward to furthering
our knowledge of how the brain works with my colleagues at UAB.”
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