Van Horn Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Gage Van Horn, M.D., professor and vice chair of the Department of Neurology at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, received a 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Neurological Society (TNS). The award was presented at the society’s ninth annual winter conference in Austin.

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors TNS members for outstanding service to patients and to the neurology profession. Winners must have a lifelong commitment to fostering and stimulating improvements in neurological health care and must have had outstanding leadership in neurology in the state of Texas.

As a charter member of the Texas Neurological Society, Van Horn attended the 1974 plenary meeting at the Towers Motel in Houston. “The TNS was started by Dr. Bill Fields, who was also the first chair of the neurology department at the Medical School,” Van Horn said. Fields chaired the department until 1980, and he was the first recipient of the TNS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

As a member for more than 30 years, Van Horn has served the neurological society in several capacities. He was president in 1997-98. For the last four years, he has been the editor of the society’s newsletter, Broca’s Area.

Van Horn has taught at the Medical School since 1974, when he was recruited by Fields to become the second neurologist on the faculty. Van Horn said he has served in nearly every role in the neurology department, including residency director, clerkship director, clinic director, and recently, as chief of neurology at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital.

His clinical research interests focus on adult neurology with particular emphasis on Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

By Camille Webb, Medical School