William D. Willis, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

Professor

Affiliations: Director; Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair, and Chief of the Division of Comparative Neurobiology, Marine Biomedical Institute
Professor and Chairman, Department of Anatomy & Neurosciences
Professor, Department of Physiology & Biophysics

Biographical Information

Dr. Willis joined the staff of the Marine Biomedical Institute in 1970 as Chief of the Division of Comparative Neurobiology. Since 1978, he has served as Director of the Institute. In 1986, he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Anatomy & Neurosciences. His research interest is the structure and function of the vertebrate spinal cord and brain stem.

A native of Dallas, Dr. Willis obtained his B.S. and B.A. degrees in 1956. In 1960, he received his M.D. degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. Dr. Willis earned his Ph.D. degree in 1963 from the Australian National University under the supervision of Sir John C. Eccles. Thereafter, he worked in Italy as an NINDS postdoctoral research fellow under Professor Giuseppi Moruzzi in the Institute of Physiology, University of Pisa. In 1963, Dr. Willis returned to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Anatomy. He became Professor and Chairman of Anatomy in 1964 and Professor of Physiology in 1969.

Dr. Willis has been President of the Society for Neuroscience (1984-5), the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs (1982-3), the Cajal Club (1982-3) and the American Pain Society (1982-3). He has also been on the Executive Committee of the American Association of Anatomists (1982-6) and the Council of the International Association for the Study of Pain (1984-90). Dr. Willis has been on several NIH review boards, including the Neurology B Study Section (1968-72, Chairman 1970-72), Neurological Disorders Program Project Review Committee (1972-76), National Advisory Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke Council (1987-90) and NINDS Training Grant and Career Development Review Committee (1994-98). He has been appointed to a number of editorial boards and served as Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology (1978-83) and later Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroscience (1993-4). He has also served on the Physiology Test Committee (Chairman, 1986-8), Multidisciplinary Part I Task Force (1989-90), Step 1 Committee (1992-4) and Neuroscience Task Force (1994-98) of the National Board of Medical Examiners.

Dr. Willis has supervised the research programs of 18 Ph.D. students, 8 M.A. students and 52 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists. Recognition for the teaching efforts of Dr. Willis have included the Distinguished Teaching Award by the Freshman Class, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School (1970), the Distinguished Teaching Award of the Graduate Student Organization, UTMB (1977), the Dean of Medicine’s Teacher of the Year Award, UTMB (1978), and the Alumni Appreciation Award for Excellence in Teaching (1998). Honors for research include the John Sinclair Award, UTMB (1978), the Jacob K. Javits Award by NINDS (1985-92), the Frederick W.L. Kerr Memorial Award by the American Pain Society (1986), and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Pain Research (1993). Dr. Willis has also received the Nicholas and Katherine Leone Award for Administrative Excellence (1986).