Kenneth Kosik, MD

Professor

Department of Neurology

University of California, Santa Barbara

Kenneth S. Kosik is a physician scientist who completed a B.A. and M.A. in English literature from Case Western Reserve University in 1972 and an M.D. from the Medial College of Pennsylvania in 1976.  He served as a resident in neurology at Tufts New England Medical Center and was Chief Resident in 1980. From 1980 he held a series of academic appointments at the Harvard Medical School and achieved the rank of full professor there in 1996.  He also held appointments at McLean Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In 2004, Kosik became the Harriman Professor of Neuroscience Research and Co-Director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  

Kosik is internationally known in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research. His work with early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease in Colombia was the basis for a novel prevention trial to treat Alzheimer’s disease. He was one of several groups that discovered Tau protein in the Alzheimer neurofibrillary tangle, followed up with many studies on the biology and pathobiology of Tau. He currently co-directs the Tau Consortium. He co-founded the Learning and the Brain Conference to bring educators and neuroscientists together. His published papers cover synaptic plasticity, stem cells, synapse evolution, and the biology of Alzheimer’s disease.

His awards include a Whitaker Health Sciences Award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Milton Foundation Award from the Harvard Medical School, the Moore Award, American Association of Neuropathologists, the Metropolitan Life Foundation Medical Award, the Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar Award from the American Neurological Association, the Zenith Award and Temple Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Ranwell Caputo Medal from the Argentine Society of Neurochemistry, the NASA Group Achievement Award to Neurolab Science Team, the Premio Aventis from the Academia Nacional de Medicina, Colombia, the City of Santa Barbara Innovation Star Award and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  With Ellen Clegg, he authored The Alzheimer’s Solution: How Today’s Care is Failing Millions and How We Can Do Better which received the Will Solemine award.  Recently he co-authored Outsmarting Alzheimer’s Disease with Alisa Bowman. His work has been widely shown in the media including pieces in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, BBC, a CNN special called “Filling the Blank,” a NOVA documentary called “Can Alzheimer’s Be Stopped?” and a double segment on CBS 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl. His 2016 University of California Santa Barbara commencement address was archived at the Graduation Wisdom Best Commencement Speeches web site.