The Art of Listening Award honors a caring, receptive health professional in the lives of individuals and families living with genetic conditions.

Edwin Kolodny, MD, a neurologist and geneticist, is the Bernard A. and Charlotte Marden Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the New York University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the NYU Medical Center faculty, he served as Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center For Mental Retardation in Waltham, MA. and Professor of Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School. His major interests are inherited diseases of the nervous system, including developmental disabilities and the lysosomal storage diseases. He was a co-discoverer of the enzyme defect in Tay-Sachs disease and of very long-chain fatty acids as a marker of adrenoleukodystrophy.

He recently participated in clinical trials of enzyme-replacement therapies that led to FDA approval of treatments for mucopolysaccharidoses I and VI, as well as Pompe disease, and currently chairs the Expert Committee for the Project Hope-Genzyme Gaucher Initiative. Edwin and his colleagues in the Neurogenetics Clinic at NYU evaluate and manage children and adults with especially complex and challenging metabolic and genetic diseases of the nervous system. His many publications include a textbook, The Neurology of Inherited Metabolic Diseases, co-authored with Drs. Gilles Lyon and Gregory Pastores, that has just appeared in its third edition. Edwin and his pediatrician wife Roselyn have four children and many grandchildren. Despite considerable administrative responsibilities as the chairman of a large clinical department, he remains active in teaching residents, medical students, and fellows; conducting clinical and basic research in neurogenetics; and looking after patients with special needs.