Robert Hamill, M.D., left, Professor Emeritus of Neurological Sciences, with James Boyd, M.D., Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences & the inaugural Robert W. Hamill Green & Gold Professor in Neurological Sciences. (Photo: UVM Foundation)

The University of Vermont Foundation hosted a special Investiture ceremony for an inaugural endowed position – the Robert W. Hamill, M.D. Green & Gold Professor in Neurological Sciences at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine – on December 6 in the Hoehl Gallery in the Health Science Research Facility. UVM President Tom Sullivan and Larner College of Medicine Dean Frederick Morin, M.D., presented James Boyd, M.D., associate professor of neurological sciences, as the first Hamill Green & Gold Professor at the event.

Boyd’s Investiture marks UVM’s 104th endowed professorship – one of the highest honors the University can bestow on faculty members. Established in 2014 by donations from members of the Department of Neurological Sciences, grateful patients and colleagues, the Hamill Green & Gold Professor in Neurological Sciences honors the service of Hamill, a professor emeritus of neurological sciences who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Neurology and help establish – in collaboration with UVM colleague Rodney Parsons, Ph.D., former chair of anatomy and neurobiology – the Department of Neurological Sciences.

Boyd, who joined the UVM faculty in 2005, is the director of the Frederick C. Binter Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders at the UVM Medical Center. He is board-certified in neurology and clinical neurophysiology and specializes in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. He received a medical degree from Memorial University of New Foundland in Canada. He completed an internship in internal medicine, a residency in neurology, as well as a fellowship in neurophysiology at the UVM Medical Center.

At the December 6 event, Boyd said “I could never be the clinician or researcher that I am today without Bob Hamill.”

During his remarks, Hamill called the endowed professorship named for him “a capstone in my career in academic medicine” and added that “my best ‘discovery’ was Jim Boyd.”