Elliott Marcus, MD, Lectureship

Elliott M. Marcus, MD, and professor with a passion in neuroscience and neurology developed and organized the academic neurology service in 1976, in collaboration with UMass Chan Medical School and St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester and a former professor establishing the neuroscience teaching program at Tufts Medical School.  

Marcus graduated manga cum laude with distinction in psychology, as a scholarship student at Yale University in 1954. He completed his postgraduate training in medicine at Yale’s New Haven Hospital, and Tufts New England Medical Center, and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society in his junior year. His training focus continued in neurology, neuropathology, and neurophysiology at Tufts New England Medical Center and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. While at Columbia, he met his future wife, R. Nuran Turksoy, MD, and became a supporter of women in medicine.

Marcus continued to teach neurology to students and residents after retiring from his administrative position in 1998. Tufts and UMass recognized him through his various teaching awards. He was a polished author and published many research papers in the field of epilepsy. He co-authored four neuroscience textbooks with Stanley Jacobson, MD and was working on a new revision of his first book, An Introduction to the Neurosciences, at the time of his death in 2011.

Marcus was the founding President of the Massachusetts Neurological Association in 1978 and served as MNA President again in 1995-1997 and remained an active member of the American Neurological Association, the American Epilepsy Society, and the American Academy of Neurology. He was an avid sailor, student of history, and loved exploring archeological sites in Turkey and Greece.