Scott R. Whittemore, Ph.D., is a professor and vice-chair for research in the School of Medicine's Department of Neurological Surgery. He also serves as co-director of the M.D./Ph.D. program at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and is scientific director of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (KSCIRC).

Whittemore’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.  He is principal investigator on KSCIRC’s $10.4 million Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant, renewed in 2005 for an additional five years by the NIH.

He is studying molecular and cellular techniques to repair spinal cord injuries, with an emphasis on combined strategies aimed at restoring function.  His work in the laboratory and in animal models focuses on replacement of lost neurons, Regeneration of nervous tissue (axons), and regeneration of the protective coating (Myelin) that insulates the nervous system.

Whittemore has served as an editorial board member or reviewer for 30 journals and has published nearly 120 papers and book chapters.

A 1982 graduate of the University of Vermont College of Medicine where he earned a doctorate in physiology and biophysics, Whittemore completed postdoctoral fellowships in psychobiology at the University of California, Irvine and in medical genetics at Uppsala University in Sweden.

After joining the faculty of the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1986 Whittemore became a professor of neurological surgery there in 1997. He was one of the initial directors of a community research project known as the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, which began in 1986. He joined the medical faculty at U of L in 1998.

ABOUT The Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (KSCIRC) at the University of Louisville (UofL).

The Center was opened in 2001 and is located in newly renovated contiguous space in the Medical Dental Research Building close to the three major Hospitals of the University of Louisville Health Science Center.  KSCIRC is led by Directors Scott R. Whittemore, Ph.D. (Scientific) and Christopher B. Shields, M.D. (Clinical) who are committed to further developing it into a world-class scientific and clinical Research Center.  The Center is in a rapid growth phase, made possible by funding and excellent cooperation between the State of Kentucky, University of Louisville and Norton Healthcare, and a recent $8.5 Million grant from NIH.  Our Center is one of twelve spinal cord injury research centers in the United States.  It is in a unique position to conduct research that, through our close association with our clinical colleagues in the Department of Neurological Surgery, we expect will ultimately lead to effective treatments for spinal cord injury.  This goal is guided by our mission: "to develop successful spinal cord repair strategies in the laboratory that can be taken to the clinic in a timely and responsible fashion".  This goal will be facilitated by our plan to double the size and scientific impact of the Center over the next five years.