Ray L. Watts

Ray L. Watts
Ray L. Watts
Born Ray Lannom Watts
(1953-12-18) December 18, 1953
Birmingham, Alabama
Alma mater University of Alabama Birmingham
Washington University School of Medicine

Ray Lannom Watts (born December 18, 1953)[1] is the seventh president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Biography

A Birmingham native and graduate of West End High School, Watts earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering at UAB in 1976. Four years later, he graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis as valedictorian of his class.

Watts completed a neurology residency, medical internship, and clinical fellowships at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a two-year medical staff fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of American Neurological Association; American Academy of Neurology; Society for Neuroscience; Alpha Omega Alpha; Movement Disorders Society; International Brain Research Organization; Medical Association of State of Alabama; and the Alabama Academy of Neurology.[2]

Before returning to UAB in 2003, he was part of a team that helped to create an internationally renowned research and clinical center for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders at Emory University in Atlanta.[3]

In 2010, Watts accepted the position of Senior Vice President and Dean of the School of Medicine at UAB, and later was named to the James C. Lee Jr. Endowed Chair.[4] He then became UAB's seventh President.[5]

UAB Neurology

At UAB, Watts served as the John N. Whitaker Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology.[6] There he led the development of an interdisciplinary research program aimed at translating scientific breakthroughs into promising new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and played a key role in the establishment of the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center.[7] He also was named president of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation.

Watts has co-edited three editions of “Movement Disorders: Neurologic Principles and Practice.”[8] He has authored or co-authored more than 100 research articles which have been published in journals including Annals of Neurology,[9] Cell Transplantation,[10] Experimental Neurology,[11] Human Molecular Genetics,[12] the Journal of the American Medical Association,[13] JAMA Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry,[14] Journal of Genomics,[15] Journal of Medicinal Chemistry,[16] Journal of Neuroscience,[17] Journal of Neurosurgery,[18] Movement Disorders,[19] the New England Journal of Medicine,[20] and Neurology.[21]

In 2007, Ray Watts was the lead author of the paper "Randomized, blind, controlled trial of transdermal rotigotine in early Parkinson disease" published in January 2007 in the journal Neurology,[22] and the second author of the paper "Transdermal Rotigotine Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial in Parkinson Disease" published in May 2007 in Archives of Neurology [23] (the first author, Jankovic, was the second author of the first published paper). The editor of Archives of Neurology, upon learning of the earlier publication, compared the two writings and deemed them to be "redundant publications...additional information [in the second publication] represents a minor contribution". The second paper cited the first paper in a late draft after questions about the methodology arose, but did not mention the similarity of the data .[24] In response, the authors of the papers stated that they strongly disagreed with the editor's conclusions, and believe the focus of the two papers are different. The authors also say that the primary author was not aware of the acceptance of the earlier paper during submission of the second paper. The authors state that the Neurology paper was accepted October 24, 2006, and the Archives paper was submitted in December 2006. The authors did admit "in retrospect, we should have notified the Archives about the complementary article in Neurology" .[25]

UAB Presidency

On January 15, 2015, a two-thirds majority of the UAB faculty senate voted no-confidence in the leadership of Ray Watts as president of the university.[26] The resolution stated that "decisions by President Ray Watts were exercised in a manner that demonstrates no respect for, or commitment to, shared governance" and that changes in academic operations, faculty benefits, and the disbanding of the UAB Football, Bowling, and Rifle teams were examples of this.[27] Additionally on March 23, 2015, UAB's National Alumni Society issued a statement of no confidence and demanded Watts' immediate resignation.[28] On June 1, 2015, Watts announced steps would be taken to reinstate UAB football, rifle and bowling after campus and community leaders, the City of Birmingham and private donors pledged significant funds to reestablish and sustain the three programs.[29] An initiative called “Finish the Drive” began on August 18, 2015, to conduct further fundraising for UAB Athletics.[30]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Windsor, Matt (Spring 2013). "Opportunity of a Lifetime". UAB Magazine. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ "UAB - UAB News Archive - UAB Names Watts as Chair of Neurology". www.uab.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
  3. ↑ "UAB - Office of the President - Biography". www.uab.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  4. ↑ "Ray Watts to lead medical education". UAB website. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  5. ↑ "UAB's 7th President". UAB website. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ "UAB Names Watts as Chair of Neurology". UAB News Archive. University of Alabama at Birmingham. February 17, 2003. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  7. ↑ "UAB Creates Comprehensive Neuroscience Center". UAB News Archive. University of Alabama at Birmingham. September 15, 2006. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  8. ↑ Feigin, Andrew; Eidelberg, David (1997-12-25). "Book Review". New England Journal of Medicine 337 (26): 1931–1932. doi:10.1056/NEJM199712253372619. ISSN 0028-4793.
  9. ↑ Oliveira, SA; Scott, WK; Martin, ER; Nance, MA; Watts, RL; et al. (May 2003). "Parkin mutations and susceptibility alleles in late-onset Parkinson's disease". Ann Neurol 53 (5): 624–9. doi:10.1002/ana.10524.
  10. ↑ Watts, RL; Mandir, AS; Bakay, RAE (1995). "Intrastriatal cografts of autologous adrenal medulla and sural nerve in MPTP-induced Parkinsonian macaques: Behavioral and anatomical assessment". Cell Transplantation 4: 27–38. doi:10.1016/0963-6897(95)92155-r.
  11. ↑ Watts, RL; Subramanian, T; Freeman, A; Goetz, CG; Penn, RD; Stebbins, GT; Kordower, JH; Bakay, RAE (1997). "Effect of stereotaxic intrastriatal cografts of autologous adrenal medulla and peripheral nerve in Parkinson's disease: 2 year follow-up study". Experimental Neurology 147: 510–517. doi:10.1006/exnr.1997.6626.
  12. ↑ Li, YJ; Oliveira, SA; Xu, P; Martin, ER; Stenger, JE; Scherzer, CR; Hauser, MA; Scott, WK; Small, GW; Nance, MA; Watts, RL; et al. (Dec 2003). "Glutathione S-transferase omega-1 modifies age-at-onset of Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease". Hum Mol Genet 12 (24): 3259–67. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddg357. PMID 14570706. Erratum in: Hum Mol Genet. 2004 Mar 1;13(5):573
  13. ↑ Tanner, CM; Ottman, R; Goldman, SM; Ellenberg, J; Chan, P; Mayeux, R; Langston, JW (1999). "Parkinson disease in Twins: An etiologic study". JAMA 281 (4): 341–346. doi:10.1001/jama.281.4.341. PMID 9929087.
  14. ↑ Okun, MS; Stover, NP; Watts, RL; DeLong, MR (2001). "Complication of gamma knife surgery for Parkinson disease". Arch Neurology 58: 1995–2002.
  15. ↑ Shoffner, JM; Brown, MD; Torroni, A; Lott, MT; Cabell, MF; Mirra, SS; Beal, MF; Yang, C-C; Gearing, M; Salvo, R; Watts, RL; Juncos, JL; Hansen, LA; Crain, BJ; Fayad, M; Reckord, CL; Wallace, DC (1993). "Mitochondrial DNA variants observed in Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease patients". Genomics 17: 171–184. doi:10.1006/geno.1993.1299.
  16. ↑ Xing, D; Chen, P; Keil, R; Kilts, CD; Shi, B; Camp, VM Malveaux G; Ely, T; Owens, MJ; Votaw, J; Davis, MR; Hoffman, JM; Subramanian, T; Bakay, RAE; Watts, RL; Goodman, MM (2000). "Synthesis, biodistribution and primate imaging of fluorine-18 labeled 2b-carbo-1'-fluoro-2-propoxy-3b-(4-chlorophenyl) tropanes: Ligands for the imaging of dopamine transporters by Positron Emission Tomography". J Medicinal Chemistry 43 (4): 639–648. doi:10.1021/jm9902234.
  17. ↑ Coa, X; Yasuda, T; Uthayathas, S; Watts, RL; Mouradian, MM; Mochizuki, H; Papa, SM (May 2010). "Striatal overexpression of ΔFosB reproduces involuntary movements developed after chronic levodopa treatment". J Neurosci 30 (21): 7335–43. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0252-10.2010.
  18. ↑ Sung, VW; Watts, RL; Schrandt, CJ; Guthrie, S; Wang, D; Amara, AW; Guthrie, BL; Walker, HC (Dec 2013). "The relationship between clinical phenotype and early early staged bilateral deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease". Journal of Neurosurgery 119 (6): 1530–6. doi:10.3171/2013.8.jns122025.
  19. ↑ Langston JW, H Widner, D Brooks, S Fahn, T Freeman, C Goetz, RL Watts. "Core Assessment Program for Intracerebral Transplantations (CAPIT). Movement Disorders J 7 (No. 1):2-13, 1992
  20. ↑ Parkinson Group, The; et al. (2004). "Levodopa and the rate of progression of Parkinson disease, the ELLDOPA study". New England Journal of Medicine 351 (24): 2498–508. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa033447.
  21. ↑ Pullman, S; Watts, RL; Juncos, JL; Chase, TM; Sanes, JN (1988). "Dopaminergic effects on simple and choice reaction time performance in Parkinson's disease". Neurology 38: 249–254. doi:10.1212/wnl.38.2.249.
  22. ↑ Watts, R. L.; Jankovic, J.; Waters, C.; Rajput, A.; Boroojerdi, B.; Rao, J. (January 2007). "Randomized, blind, controlled trial of transdermal rotigotine in early Parkinson disease". Neurology 68 (4): 272–276. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000252355.79284.22.
  23. ↑ Jankovic, J.; Watts, R. L.; Martin, W.; Boroojerdi, B. (May 2007). "Transdermal Rotigotine: Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial in Parkinson Disease". Archives of Neurology 64 (5): 676–682. doi:10.1001/archneur.64.5.676.
  24. ↑ Rosenberg, Roger (December 2007). "Notice of Redundant Publication: "Transdermal Rotigotine: Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial in Parkinson Disease" (Arch Neurol. 2007;64[5]:676-682)". Archived of Neurology 64 (12): 1800–1801. doi:10.1001/archneur.64.12.1800.
  25. ↑ Jankovic, J.; Watts, R. L.; Martin, W.; Boroojerdi, B. (December 2007). "Notice of Redundant Publication: "Transdermal Rotigotine: Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial in Parkinson Disease" (Arch Neurol. 2007;64[5]:676-682)—Reply". Archives of Neurology 64 (12): 1801. doi:10.1001/archneur.64.12.1801.
  26. ↑ "UAB faculty senate votes no confidence in president Ray Watts". Fox 6 WBRC. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  27. ↑ "No confidence in Watts: UAB Faculty Senate passes resolution as football fallout continues". AL.com. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Call for President's Resignation". UAB NAS. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  29. ↑ "Ray Watts to reinstate UAB football". AL.com. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  30. ↑ "UAB - Finish the Drive - Home". www.uab.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  31. ↑ "UAB - Commencement - Distinguished Alumnus Award". www.uab.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
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