Jonathan Rosand

Jonathan Rosand is a physician, scientist, educator, leader, and social entrepreneur dedicated to advancing brain injury treatment and brain disease prevention through large-scale interdisciplinary collaboration. A neurologist with expertise in neurocritical care, cerebrovascular disease, genetics, and epidemiology, Dr. Rosand founded Harvard’s first Division of Neurocritical Care at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2010. He holds the J.P. Kistler (VPS’94) Endowed Chair in Neurology at Mass General and is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Rosand’s research program has been a global leader in high-throughput genetic, imaging, and epidemiological studies focused on stroke, cognitive decline, and depression. In 2007, he launched the International Stroke Genetics Consortium, bringing together many of the world’s leading stroke investigators to advance collaborative research at scale. In 2024, he founded the Global Brain Care Coalition (GBCC) to accelerate the translation of research findings into practical tools, interventions, and implementation strategies for clinicians, individuals, and communities worldwide.

With his brother Eric (LAW’95), Jonathan was raised in New York City and Venice, Italy in a family devoted to scholarship and teaching in the humanities. His mother is the George Saden Professor Emerita of Music at Yale. His father was Columbia Art Historian David Rosand (CC’59, PhD’65, HON’14). After graduating from Columbia College with a degree in Greek and Latin, Jonathan earned his medical degree, Alpha Omega Alpha, from the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He then completed internship, residency, chief residency, and clinical and research fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Broad Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health. Jonathan and his wife, Judy Polacheck (LAW’94), have two adult children.

Jonathan’s Columbia service includes the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Board of Advisors, the Columbia Alumni Association Board, the Columbia University Press Advisory Council, the Department of Art History and Archaeology Advisory Council, and selection committee of the Andrew Mark Lippard Memorial Lecture series at VP&S, established in memory of his childhood friend, who died at the age of seven from acute brain swelling. The Rosand family and their friends endowed the David Rosand Professorship of Italian Renaissance Art History and continue to play leading roles in supporting Casa Muraro, Columbia’s Study Center in Venice, Italy.