Neurologist appointed to lead reprieved neuroscience institute
NSW neurologist Professor John Watson has been named as the new Director of the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience at the Australian National University, Canberra.
Professor Watson will take over leadership of the institute from Professor Greg Stuart after it was recently reprieved from closure during a round of $100 million cost-saving cuts at ANU in 2021.
Professor Watson is currently a Consultant Neurologist at Sydney Adventist Hospital and led the establishment of the original University of Sydney Clinical School in 2011. A neuroscientist and former Rhodes Scholar, Professor Watson graduated from Oxford University and undertook postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute of Neurology and at University College London (UCL) in high-resolution functional and structural brain imaging of the human visual system using PET and high-resolution structural MRI to study colour appreciation, visual motion, and edge detection.
He will now take up the task of developing the interdisciplinary Eccles Institute, while Professor John Bekkers, Head of the Division of Neuroscience in the ANU John Curtin School of Medical Research will continue to provide leadership and supervision to its staff and students.
Epilepsy guidelines based on age of onset
The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Nosology and Definitions Task Force has published a series of position papers on epilepsy syndromes which have traditionally been grouped according to age at onset.
They include epilepsy syndromes presenting in neonates and infants up to age 2 years, in childhood 2-12 years, and those that may begin at variable ages in both paediatric and adult patients.
Australian paediatric neurologist Professor Ingrid Scheffer was a coauthor on the series which also includes a separate position paper on the idiopathic generalised epilepsies is included in the series.
The main goal of the series is to assist with clinical diagnosis by providing consensus on clinical context, natural history, seizure type, EEG, neuroimaging and genetic findings, and differential diagnosis.