In an emotional announcement at Columbia\u2019s Low Library, beloved actor and Parkinson\u2019s advocate Michael J. Fox was named the university\u2019s inaugural Professor of Optimism and Resilience\u2014a first-of-its-kind position bridging neuroscience, philosophy, and lived experience. The Back to the Future star, 62, received a standing ovation as he joked, \u201cTurns out you don\u2019t need a PhD when life gives you a masterclass in getting back up.\u201d The role will see him lead seminars on hope as a \u201ccognitive discipline\u201d and mentor students facing adversity.<\/p>\n
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The unconventional appointment was spearheaded by Columbia\u2019s neurology department, inspired by Fox\u2019s decades of Parkinson\u2019s research advocacy. \u201cMichael\u2019s work proves optimism isn\u2019t naivete\u2014it\u2019s a revolutionary act,\u201d said University President Minouche Shafik. His \u201cFox Fellows\u201d program will fund studies on neuroplasticity and trauma recovery, with a quirky twist: final projects must include \u201cone impractical idea that makes the world more joyful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Hollywood and academia collided in the reactions. Stephen Colbert tweeted \u201cFinally, a professor who\u2019ll give A\u2019s for time-travel essays,\u201d while Dr. Sanjay Gupta called it \u201cthe missing link between brain science and human spirit.\u201d Even Fox\u2019s Family Ties co-star Meredith Baxter shared a throwback clip with the caption \u201cAlex P. Keaton just became the most inspiring teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an emotional announcement at Columbia\u2019s Low Library, beloved actor and Parkinson\u2019s advocate Michael J. Fox was named the university\u2019s inaugural Professor of Optimism and Resilience\u2014a first-of-its-kind position bridging neuroscience, philosophy, and lived experience....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5099,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions\/5099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/originaltastex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}