Background

The Service of Neurology was created in 1954 by Professor Michel Jéquier. It is headed today by Professor Renaud Du Pasquier.

Professor Eric Zander founded the CHUV Service of Neurosurgery in 1958. Professor Marc Levivier has been the Head of the Service since September 2007.

Neuropsychology was introduced to the CHUV in 1968 by Professor Gilbert Assal. In 1985, the “Center for Neuropsychology and Language Pathology” created by Assal became the “Neuropsychology Division” of the Service of Neurosurgery, and later the “Independent Neuropsychology Division” of the Department of Medicine in 1991.

Upon Professor Assal's retirement in 1999, the Faculty of Medicine created a Neuropsychology Chair, which since 2000 has been occupied by Professor Stéphanie Clark. On January 1^st 2008, the Independent Neuropsychology Division merged with the Rehabilitation Unit to become the Service of Neuropsychology and Neurorehabiliation.

The CHUV opened a Center for cognitive and behavioural disorders (Leenaards Memory Centre) on January 7^th 2013. This combines the competencies of geriatrics, neurology, neuropsychology and old age psychiatry, in a well resourced integrated clinical and research environment. It is headed by Professor Jean-François Démonet, who is an internationally recognised specialist in dementia recruited from the University of Toulouse. The creation of this centre is one of the components of the “Alzheimer's Programme” developed by the Department of Health and Social Welfare (Département de la santé et de l'action sociale) of the Canton de Vaud, the first Swiss canton to adopt a public policy on this matter.

Created in January 2014, the Center for Research in Neuroscience (CRN) of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences of the CHUV establishes a world-class center for Clinical and Basic Neuroscience Research. The CRN, directed by Prof. Nicole Déglon, groups thirteen laboratories and research units with the department, and is strongly interlinked with the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of UNIL.