Michael Geschwind, MD, PhD, is a professor of neurology at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and a clinician-researcher at the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center. Dr. Geschwind specializes in the evaluation, management, and treatment of rapidly progressive dementias, movement disorders, and neurogenetic conditions.
Dr. Geschwind earned his MD and PhD in neuroscience through the NIH-sponsored Medical Scientist Training Program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed his internship in internal medicine at UCLA Medical Center, followed by a residency in neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He then pursued a fellowship in behavioral neurology at UCSF, where he has remained a vital part of the Fein Memory and Aging Center team.
Dr. Geschwind is widely recognized for his expertise in rapidly progressive dementias, including prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and antibody-mediated encephalopathies. He helped establish the first U.S. program dedicated to assessing rapidly progressive dementias at UCSF and led the country’s first treatment study for CJD. He also has active research and clinical interests in movement disorders, such as Huntington’s disease, spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and multiple system atrophy (MSA), as well as neurogenetic disorders like CADASIL (cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy).
Dr. Geschwind co-directs the UCSF Huntington’s Disease (HD) Center, designated as a Huntington’s Disease Society of America Center of Excellence, and serves as an investigator for studies on Huntington’s disease, SCA, and MSA. He also co-directs the UCSF Autoimmune Encephalopathy Clinic, where patients with antibody-mediated encephalopathies are assessed and treated.
An accomplished teacher and mentor, Dr. Geschwind is deeply involved in the training of medical students, residents, and fellows at UCSF. He lectures nationally and internationally on dementia and movement disorders, making significant contributions to the field through his teaching, research, and clinical care.