Nicolas G. Bazan, MD, PhD, is Professor and founding Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans. He is also a Foreign Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet. “A true Renaissance man,” Dr. Bazan is an innovative research scientist, effective mentor, community leader, creative author, executive movie producer, arts patron, entrepreneur, and transformative influencer in implementing a knowledge-based local economy. His pioneering research has opened conceptual in-roads in neuroscience, ophthalmology, and medicine by uncovering genomic signaling mechanisms and novel molecular principles of aging, cell survival, regeneration and neuroprotection as part of his ongoing quest to respond to one major challenge to civilization: the growing incidence of the loss of sight and cognition. He has served in leadership roles, including NIH advisory committees for NIH and the Senate of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases program. He is also the author of Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind and The Dark Madonna: A Fable of Resiliency and Imagination.