Dr. Michael J. Strong is Dean of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Distinguished University Professor at Western University. He also holds the Arthur J. Hudson Chair in ALS Research. He undertook his undergraduate training in biochemistry and medicine at Queens University in Kingston (1976 – 1982), neurology training at Western University (1982 – 1987), and postgraduate training at the Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies (director - D. Carleton Gadjusek, Nobel Laureate) at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland under the supervision of Ralph M. Garruto, PhD (1987 - 1990).
Dr. Strong joined the Department in 1990 and is currently a scientist at the Robarts Research Institute, and served from 2000 to 2010 as the Chief of Neurology and Co-chair of the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences at the London Health Sciences Centre and Western University. He has also served as Co-chair of the Canadian ALS Research Consortium and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the ALS Society of Canada. Dr. Strong is the lead investigator for the Ontario Neurodegenerative Research Institute (ONDRI), which received $28.5M in sponsorship funding from the Ontario Brain Institute.
Dr. Strong is the editor of the text “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and the Frontotemporal Dementias” (Oxford University Press, 2010), “Dementia and Motor Neuron Disease” (Taylor & Francis Press) co-editor with Professor Pamela Shaw of the text “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis” (Blue Book Series). He has published over 185 peer-reviewed articles and 29 chapters and given over 155 invited lectures nationally and internationally related to his research in ALS.
Dr. Strong was awarded the Sheila Essay Award in 2005 and the Forbes Norris Award in 2008, and is the only Canadian to have received both international awards for ALS research. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology in 2008. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and in 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in ALS.
