The John McCrea Dickson, MD Presidential Professorship
The Professorship was established in 2015 through the bequest of Harrison McCrea Dickson, MD (1925–2015) of the Perelman School of Medicine Class of 1958. Dr. Dickson made the gift to honor the three generations of the Dickson family who graduated from the Perelman School of Medicine: he followed in the tradition of his father, John McCrea Dickson, MD of the Class of 1912, and grandfather, John Russell Dickson, MD of the Class of 1880. Funds from Dr. Harrison Dickson’s estate have created professorships in each of their names.
After earning his MD degree, John McCrea Dickson, MD (1889–1939) was First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army during WWI. Back home, he served as the Chief Surgeon at Warner Hospital in Gettysburg, PA, from its founding in 1921 until his retirement in 1938.
Presidential Professorships are awarded to exceptional scholars of any rank who will contribute to the diverse experiences, perspectives, and eminence of Penn faculty. They were established in 2011 to strengthen the University’s ability to recruit, retain and mentor distinguished scholars who are preeminent in their fields and have demonstrated a commitment to sustaining an inclusive and vibrant academic community.
Current Chairholder
Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD
Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD is the Director of the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Clinical Research Center and Associate Director for Clinical Research in the Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair. He received his MD and PhD degrees at Baylor College of Medicine in 1988, and after an internship at Beth Israel Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, he trained in neurology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
On the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern from 1993 to 2011, he rose through the ranks from Assistant to Full Professor of Neurology. In addition, from 2011 to 2016 he was Professor of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and the Director of Clinical Research at their Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, all in Bethesda, Maryland.
Since arriving at Penn Medicine in 2016, Dr. Diaz-Arrastia has built a thriving program dedicated to studying the effects of TBI and combining imaging, genomic, and tissue biomarkers to develop more targeted, personalized therapies.
His research, which is based at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC), investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuronal injury and neuroregeneration and has garnered financial support from institutions like the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. In less than four years, Dr. Diaz-Arrastia’s team has received 11 federal grants totaling over $20 million, placing PPMC among only a handful of medical centers with such robust TBI funding. He also leads a clinical program at PPMC which evaluates and provides follow-up care for TBI patients admitted to PPMC and those referred for specialist care from across the East Coast. Dr. Diaz-Arrastia was appointed as the John McCrea Dickson, MD Presidential Professor in 2021.
Previous Chairholders
- Benjamin A. Garcia, PhD, 2018-2021