Robert A. Stern, Ph.D. PI

Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Anatomy & Neurobiology

Co-Founder and Director of Clinical Research, Boston University CTE Center

Senior Investigator, Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Dr. Robert Stern is Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Anatomy & Neurobiology at Boston University (BU) Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized expert on the neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and is Co-Founder and Director of Clinical Research for the BU CTE Center. From 2010-2019, he was the Director of the Clinical Core of the BU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (funded by National Institutes of Health, NIH).

Dr. Stern was the contact principal investigator and lead investigator of our parent study, DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project. This $17 million (also funded by NIH), multi-center, 8-year study (2015-2023) focused on the development of methods in detecting and diagnosing CTE during life, including the development and examination of neuroimaging and fluid biomarkers, establishing and validating diagnostic criteria for Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome (TES), and studying potential risk factors of the disease. He is currently one of the principal investigators for the DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project-II, expanding upon the original DIAGNOSE study, examining new potential blood and imaging biomarkers to diagnose CTE in living patients and differentiate CTE from similar diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The focus of Dr. Stern’s research is to develop methods of detecting and diagnosing CTE during life and to better understand the risk factors for later-life neurological consequences of repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries in former American football players, soccer players, and other contact sport athletes. He was the principal investigator of the first grant funded by NIH to study CTE, for the DETECT Study. Dr. Stern was also the principal investigator (currently co-investigator) of the Head Impact & Trauma Surveillance Study (HITSS; also funded by NIH), a longitudinal online assessment of 4800 former American football players and soccer players (age 40 years or older), who participated at any level. Dr. Stern’s other major area of funded research includes the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. He has had continuous research funding for 35 years, from NIH, the U.S. Department of Defense, foundations, and industry. Dr. Stern was a member of the NFL Players Association’s Mackey-White Player Health and Safety Committee as well as the court-appointed Medical Science Committee of the NCAA Concussion Settlement. He has over 250 peer-reviewed publications, is a member of several medical journal editorial boards, and is the co-editor of two books, including Sports Neurology, part of the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series, and the Oxford Handbook of Adult Cognitive Disorders. He is a clinical neuropsychologist and has developed several widely used neuropsychological tests, including the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB). He is a Fellow of the American Neuropsychiatric Association and the National Academy of Neuropsychology.