Isam Awad, M.D.

Imad Najm, M.D., is the Vice Chair for Strategy and Development at the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute and Director of the Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center (2006-present). He is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and the Department of Neurobiology at Kent State University. Dr. Najm also served as the Co-Director of Basic Sciences and Neurosciences at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, Head of Adult Epilepsy and Director of the Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. His research over the last 34 years has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Defense, the Epilepsy Foundation, and multiple philanthropic donations. He published 275 peer-reviewed papers in multiple journals, authored or co-authored many book chapters and edited two textbooks. He lectured on epilepsy in more than 30 countries and organized international symposia, courses and workshops in more than 15 countries. His main areas of research interests include the mechanisms of disease (epileptogenicity/epileptogenesis), clinical and imaging correlates, and surgical management of focal cortical dysplasia. He has been teaching Basic Neurosciences at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine since 2005. He mentored and co-mentored more than 300 epilepsy fellows and graduate students. Dr. Najm designed and co-directed the Neuroscience Curriculum at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Najm received his M.D. From Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon. He had post-graduate training in neurobiology at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Irvine. He also did post-graduate training in neurology, epilepsy, and clinical neurophysiology at Cleveland Clinic.