Richard S. Finkel, MD, is Director of the Center for Experimental Neurotherapeutics and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA. He received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and completed his pediatrics, neurology and neuromuscular training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His clinical practice and research interests have focused on pediatric neuromuscular disorders, especially spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), inherited neuropathies (CMT) and neurometabolic disorders. Dr Finkel has participated in numerous clinical trials, natural history genotype-phenotype studies, newborn screening efforts for SMA, and the development of standard-of-care guidelines; and has contributed to the development of outcome measures, clinical trial design, and biomarker identification for neuromuscular disorders. Current interests include early identification and treatment of SMA through newborn screening and potential prenatal therapy. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and is an associate editor for a leading textbook, Swaiman’s Pediatric Neurology, 7^th edition. Dr. Finkel has received several awards for his research and teaching including the Bengt Hagberg memorial lecture in 2017, the outstanding paper of the year award from the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society in 2017, the Sidney Carter Child Neurology Award from the American Academy of Neurology in 2018, and was a co-awardee of the International Prize for Translational Neuroscience of the Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation of the Max Plank Institute in 2019. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2025.