Richard Edmund Cytowic, M.D. has authored both neurology textbooks and popular works. He was nominated for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for his New York Times Magazine cover story about the condition of White House Press Secretary James Brady, who received a gunshot wound to the brain during the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
The New Jersey native received his B.A. in chemistry from Duke University, and his M.D. from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University. Dr. Cytowic went on to study at the University of London's National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, trained in ophthalmology and neuropsychology, and later served as Chief Resident in neurology at George Washington University before founding aCapitol Neurology, a private clinic in Washington D.C.
The son of a physician and an artist, his artistic and metaphysical interests are broad. He has long been interested in the harmony between science and art, and his medical biographies of Chekhov and Ravel have won awards. He has several times been a Resident Fellow at the Hambidge Center and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, both Southern artist's colonies.
Dr. Cytowic has appeared often on National and International radio and television, including All Things Considered, Voice of America, BBC World Service, and Good Morning America. His work has been reported in publications such as US News & World Report, the Washington Post, and the London Independent.
Dr. Cytowic has been an invited speaker at the World Congress of Neurology, the National Science Foundation, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals Brain & Language and Brain & Cognition, and is a Fellow of Britain's Royal Society of Medicine.