Dr. Richard Davis's interest in the brain and its diseases began while he was an undergraduate at Union College in Schenectady, NY, where he was introduced to neurophysiology and neuroanatomy. Davis subsequently attended graduate school at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse where he received his PhD in pharmacology under the mentorship of Dr. Joseph Robinson. His dissertation research concerned the molecular mechanism of the Na+-K+ ATPase. Following completion of his graduate work he obtained his MD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After medical school he returned to Upstate Medical University for his residency in clinical pathology and fellowship training in neuropathology under Dr. George Collins. Davis obtained a College of American Pathologists Foundation Scholars Award that permitted him to devote a year of his training to research. For this work, which culminated in the identification of a new neurodegenerative disorder, which he named familial encephalopathy with neuroserpin inclusion bodies (FENIB), he received the Moore Award from the American Association of Neuropathologists. Dr. Davis is currently an assistant professor of pathology at Upstate Medical University.