Jonathan Rosand

Jonathan is appointed to the J.P. Kistler (VPS’64) Endowed Chair in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and serves as Professor of Neurology at Harvard and Associate Member of the Broad Institute. An internationally renowned scientist, clinician, educator, mentor and visionary leader, Dr. Rosand has created enduring multidisciplinary teams that are successfully tackling some of the most pressing challenges in brain disease. His research program, launched over 20 years ago, has been a world leader in high-throughput genetic, imaging and epidemiological studies of stroke and the cognitive decline and depression that can come with it. Many of his trainees now occupy leadership positions at some of the most distinguished universities and hospitals around the world. In 2007                   Dr. Rosand launched the International Stroke Genetics Consortium to bring together the world’s pre-eminent stroke investigators, creating the Cerebrovascular Disease Knowledge Portal to share data widely. After founding Mass General’s Division of Neurocritical Care and building it into one of the world’s top programs, Dr. Rosand stepped down to establish the McCance Center for Brain Health with colleagues in neuroscience and psychiatry. In 2024 he launched the Global Brain Care Coalition, leveraging his extensive global collaborations, his network of former trainees, the rigorous science performed by his team, along with the lessons he has learned from a life devoted to caring for patients. The Coalition is a learning healthcare network without walls that integrates communities, health and behavioral scientists, private industry, and local and regional governments who have committed to an unprecedented vision to prevent brain disease. Their strategy is grounded in the McCance Center’s Brain Care Score. Estimates are that ~40% of dementia, ~70% of stroke, and at least 35% of depression can be prevented through the lifestyle choices we make every day. By scaling sustained lifestyle and behavioral change through its unparalleled scientifically-community-engaging, holistic, scientifically grounded, cooperative approach, the Global Brain Care Coalition has committed to a joint goal of reducing new cases of dementia, stroke and depression by 10% in ten years and 30% by mid-century. 

With his brother Eric (Law’95), Jonathan was raised in New York City and Venice, Italy in a family devoted to passionate 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, Broad Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health. Jonathan and his wife, Judy Polacheck (Law’94), have two adult children.

At Columbia Jonathan Chairs the Morningside Science Leadership Council and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the advisory council of Columbia’s Department of Art History and Archaeology, board of the Columbia Alumni Association, and on the 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.