Member of the Order of Canada

• Awarded on: October 5, 2006
• Invested on: May 04, 2007

A leader in the field of movement disorders neurology, Jon Stoessl has been working to improve the lives of patients with Parkinson's disease. Professor of neurology and director of the Pacific Parkinson's Research Centre at the University of British Columbia, he holds the Canadian Research Chair in Central Nervous System Disorders. His innovative research has used positron emission tomography, a specialized imaging technique, to investigate the causes of Parkinson's disease and its effects on the brain. More recently, he has found a formerly unknown mechanism in the brain that attempts to compensate for the damage done by this debilitating disease.