• BIOGRAPHY
• Robert J Baumann, MD, FAAN, FAAP

Born in Chicago (1940), in the University of Chicago (UC)  Hyde Park  neighborhood, Bob always wanted to be a university professor and adoctor. Both parents worked with children; His mother as one of the country’s first psychiatric social workers.  His father developed children’s programs for settlement houses, YMCA and Jewish Community Centers. Subsequently his parents built their own summer camp on a farm in south-central Michigan. That is where Bob first began to work with children – a lifelong vocation.

After college at Tufts University (Medford, Mass.), he joined the Western Reserve University, Medical School, Class of 1961, attracted by its reputation for cutting edge, student friendly teaching. There he married his wife Judith, a University Hospital dietitian. 

Returning to Chicago’s University of Chicago Hospitals, Dr. Baumann trained in Child Neurology, a field that did not officially exist; doing 2 years of Pediatrics and scheduled for 3 years of Neurology. His first year, as an Intern, Dr. Baumann was paid the handsome sum of 3,200 dollars (for the year).  With such largess, the hospital abolished free room, board and laundry!

Training for a career in child neurology was a new concept.  After four years of residency, the government felt he was well enough educated to do government work, and the Department of Defense made an offer he could refuse. July 1969 Captain Baumann was designated an officer and a gentleman as well as the first child neurologist practicing in the Air Force - assigned to Wilford Hall, USAF Medical Center, San Antonio.

In 1971, after a clinically interesting two years with the Air Force, Bob was back at UC to finish training. Jobs for young child neurologists were scarce. Fortunately, Dr. David Clark had just begun an independent Department of Neurology at A. B. “Happy” Chandler’s new medical center at the University of Kentucky and needed a faculty child neurologist.

Beginning in 1972, Baumann spent formative years with David Clark, a master diagnostician and teacher. With Clark’s support, Baumann traveled Eastern Kentucky mountain counties locating sites for Child Neurology clinics to provide services to these underserved communities as well as teaching sites for students and residents.  Each clinic was rooted in the local community: nurses, social workers and support staff were all from the area, bringing a deep understanding of local needs, resources and family dynamics. These clinics have prospered and expanded.

At Kentucky, Doctor Bauman establishes the section of Child Neurology, establishes a child neurology training program (certified for 20 trainees a year) and publishes over 70 peer reviewed papers, primarily in neuro epidemiology. As Visiting Scientist, he spends a year at the NIH and, in addition, serves on multiple NIH expert committees. He is elected to Boards of Directors including for Professors of Child Neurology, American Academy of Neurology and United Council of Neurologic Subspecialties.