Kenneth Heilman


Kenneth M. Heilman is an American behavioral neurologist. He is considered one of the fathers of modern-day behavioral neurology.

Early life and career

Heilman was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1963.
He did two years of residency in internal medicine at Cornell University Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital. During the Vietnam War era, he joined the Air Force and served as chief of medicine at the NATO Hospital in Izmir, Turkey from 1965 to 1967. After leaving the Air Force, Heilman went for residency in neurology at Harvard Medical School under Derek Denny-Brown and then continued there in a fellowship with Norman Geschwind.
Upon completion of his fellowship, Heilman was recruited by the chairman of the department of neurology, Melvin Greer, and joined the faculty of the University of Florida Department of Neurology in 1970 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973 and Professor in 1975. He became the first James E. Rooks, Jr. Professor of Neurology in 1990, a newly endowed chair at the university. In 1998, he was among the first UF faculty to receive the title of Distinguished Professor. Heilman is also the program director and was chief of neurology at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Administration Hospital. He is also a professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at the UF.

Clinical activity

Heilman is an active clinician who is Director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at UF/Shands, one of the 15 Memory Disorder Clinics supported by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. This clinic serves those with memory and cognitive disorders, especially those suffering from dementias such as Alzheimer's disease. His expertise as a clinician has been recognized by being listed in virtually every edition of the Best Doctors in America as well as other publications citing clinical excellence.

Research and teaching

Heilman has research interests in attentional, emotional and cognitive disorders. In addition to teaching medical and psychology students, he is active in resident education and been director of the University of Florida Behavioral Neurology Fellowship, that has trained many dozens of post doctoral fellows since its inception in 1976. Several of Heilman's former fellows are now leaders in academic neurology, neuropsychology, speech therapy, and other allied fields. Heilman is the author of several texts, and has authored or co-authored more than 500 articles in peer reviewed journals as well as multiple chapters and fourteen books. His research has been almost continuously funded by federal agencies for the last 35 years. In recognition of his research contributions he was in the first group of individuals to receive the University of Florida Research Foundation Professorships. Heilman also received the Clinical Research Award from the University of Florida College of Medicine. The Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Society has recognized him with an Outstanding Achievement Award for his research and educational contributions to Neurology. He received the Wartenberg Award from the American Academy of Neurology. He is honorary member of the American Neurological Association and an AAN fellow.
One of Heilman's most recent books, on the neurology of creativity, is dedicated to the nearly 100 fellows he has had who have published with him. Heilman is lionized by his former fellows, whose cross collaborations are usually based on one or another of Heilman's creative expressions.

Academic leadership

Heilman has served as president of the International Neuropsychology Society and the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology.

Research advances

Research advances reported by Heilman and co-workers demonstrated that:
Books written or edited by Kenneth Heilman: