The Scientific Committee is fully committed to a great mission: To increase and share the best clinical knowledge and the cutting-edge information from translational research in all neurological fields. Main actions are i) to facilitate exchanges and synergies with the Scientific Panels ii) to support the Guideline Production Group (update and diffusion of expertise and best clinical practice), iii) to interact positively with other scientific societies with reciprocal exchanges and liaise with the European Affairs sub-Committee to increase the awareness of Neurology in Europe.
For the current term, our main objective is to foster joined actions at every level.
We need you, with your energy, creativity, expertise and diversity, and we thank you in advance for your commitments, for the best present and bright future of our community.
Every month, you will find an original self-portrait of one Scientific Committee member, who will respond informally to the same 5 questions. Here we go!
- What are the lessons learned from your mistakes?
I believe that you learn much more from one mistake than from many successes. Finding out about your own limitations and working points can be very helpful in improving self-judgment and performance. Patience and empathy are very important in any physician-patient relationship but also in any other (professional) relationship.
- If you would be a comic character, what would you do?
Playing a somewhat distracted professor would be a natural situation for me, but I could play the humorous and joking patient as well…
- If you had not entered your current profession, what would you have liked to do?
I would probably be involved in some creative activities relating to arts and music, maybe also working with wines or olives.
- What is your idea of a perfect day?
Early bird start (not without a decent breakfast), meeting interesting people, discussing ideas and projects and not having to troubleshoot all the time, working through the day with some tangible outcome and spending an evening enjoying the company of family and/or friends. The occasional holiday day obviously would look differently with a slower pace, a nice lunch or dinner, enjoying the countryside, reading non-fiction and playing with my youngest son.
Paul Boon is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Ghent University (B), Director of the Neuroscience Institute at Ghent University and Professor of Neuromodulation at the Eindhoven University of Technology (NL). He is particularly interest in epilepsy and disorders of consciousness and cognition and has been performing clinical and preclinical studies.
