Dr. Benjamin Segal MD
Stanley D. and Joan H. Ross Professor of Neuromodulation
Chair, Department of Neurology
Director, the Neurological Research Institute
Co-Director, Neurological Institute
The Ohio State University
Columbus (OH), USA

Benjamin M Segal, MD, is the Chair of the Department of Neurology, Director of the Neurological Research Institute and co-Director of the Neurological Institute at the Ohio State University.  He was also appointed the Stanley D. and Joan H. Ross Professor of Neuromodulation. On the international level, he is a Director of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS), an academic organization that promotes research and education in MS.  Dr. Segal recently served as the Chair of the Scientific Program Committee of MSVirtual 2020, the largest international academic conference on MS and related diseases.

In the past, Dr. Segal was co-Chair of the Clinical Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumors study section and Chair of the NIAID Investigator Initiated Program Project Applications Study Section of the National Institutes of Health, Chair of the Canada Foundation for Innovation- Expert Committee on Neurosciences, and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, VA Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence-East. He was the Program Chair for the ACTRIMS forum between 2016-2018, and created the ACTRIMS Neurology Resident Summit in MS, which has become an annual educational event for 70-80 doctors in training from residency programs throughout the United States and Canada. In 2018 he developed the annual ACTRIMS Young Scientist Summit in Clinical Neuroimmunology.  The purpose of that Summit is to educate young investigators (from the graduate student through Assistant Professor level), who do not have clinical training and are engaged in multiple sclerosis related research, about MS diagnostic criteria, clinical subtypes, epidemiology, neuropathology, and treatment.  The long-term goal is to forge bridges between the bench and bedside that will help junior PhD investigators formulate research questions and projects, and to seek collaborations with their physician colleagues, that are more likely to lead to translational advancements in MS.

Dr Segal received his medical degree from Brown University, and completed his internship in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and neurology residency at New York Hospital/Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Prior to moving to Ohio State, he was Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Michigan.  His primary research interests pertain to the immunopathology and personalized treatment of multiple sclerosis. Dr Segal’s discoveries have contributed to our understanding of how different types of white blood cells and the chemical messengers that they secrete perpetuate inflammation and mediate tissue injury in the central nervous system during multiple sclerosis and similar diseases.  He has shown that the type of inflammation that causes damage in MS can vary between individuals, and that pharmaceutical regimens need to be tailored to the underlying immune abnormalities in each patient.  More recently he has been investigating how inflammation can be skewed to promote repair, as opposed to damage, in MS, traumatic optic nerve and spinal cord injury, and other neurological diseases. In addition to research using animal models and human samples, Dr. Segal has led novel clinical trials of immune modulating agents and interventional procedures in individuals with relapsing and progressive forms of MS. He has published over 100 original papers in peer reviewed journals.  He has received numerous honors for his research, including the Commendation Medal for Excellence from the Public Health Service, the Harry Weaver Junior Faculty Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Stanley Aronson Award for Excellence in the Clinical Neurosciences, and the Kenneth P. Johnson Lectureship at ACTRIMS. In 2014 he was inducted into the University of Michigan League of Research Excellence. He was a Senior Scholar of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute. Dr Segal is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, and American Neurological Association.  For the past 10 years, he has consistently been named among the Best Doctors in America. He is a national Castle Connolly Top Doctor.