Dr. DeKosky is the James Carroll Flippin Professor of Medical Science and Vice President and Dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. From 2000 to 2008 he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. He served as Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Geriatrics and Neuropsychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry/Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, also at the University of Pittsburgh, from 1992 to 2000. Dr. DeKosky was Director of the Pitt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) from 1994-2008. His basic research centers on structural and neurochemical changes in human brains in normal aging and dementia and effects of traumatic brain injury on risk of Alzheimer’s disease. His clinical research has centered on understanding the genetics, neuropsychiatric symptoms and treatment and prevention of AD, and he was a Principal Investigator in the clinical application of the breakthrough amyloid-imaging agent Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB). He directed an NIH-funded national multicenter trial in the USA to assess whether Ginkgo biloba can prevent or delay onset of dementia in normal elderly adults.
He has served on and led numerous NIH review and advisory committees, and taught and mentored in clinical research training programs sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He is a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee. In 2010 was appointed to the National Advisory Council of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the NIH.
Dr. DeKosky is a member of the national Board of Directors of the Alzheimer’s Association; he was the Chair of the Alzheimer’s Association Medical and Scientific Advisory Council from 1997 to 2002, chaired their Strategic Planning Committee from 1997 to 2000, and serves on the Association’s Ethics Advisory Board. He is a former member of the Board of Directors for Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), the international organization of national Alzheimer’s Associations and is now a member of the ADI Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel, a group he chaired from 2003-2006. He also serves on the National Advisory Board for the Center for Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at SUNY-Stony Brook.
Dr. DeKosky has served as Chair of the Section on Geriatrics of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), and chaired the AAN Practice Parameters Committee for Early Detection, Diagnosis and Management of Dementia. In 2003 he was elected to the Neurology Council of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN); he is one of the eight neurologists who oversee board certification in the US. In 2010 he was elected President of the Neurology Council and Vice President of the ABPN.
Dr. DeKosky has received the Rita Hayworth Award from the Alzheimer’s Association and the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute Award for his contributions to research and advocacy on behalf of people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families. In 2008 he received the Zaven Khachaturian Award for his contributions to the field of Alzheimer’s disease research. He has testified multiple times before U.S. Senate Committees for greater research funding for Alzheimer’s disease, and has met with government officials in other countries as a consultant and advocate for programs and support for people with dementia. He has received a Teacher Investigator Development Award from the NINDS, the Presidential Award of the American Neurological Association, and is listed in "The Best Doctors in America" and “America’s Top Doctors.” He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of six of the leading neurology and Alzheimer's clinical publications and is a journal reviewer for another 20 clinical journals. Dr. DeKosky is a frequent commentator on Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging for the press.