Oklahoma native Dr. John Philip Kistler was the director of Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. At age five, he spent a half year at the Sister Elizabeth Kenney Institute in Minnesota as a quadriplegic with poliomyelitis. He recovered function in 1944 and later graduated with a B.A. from Harvard College before receiving his medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He has served as an instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School (1975–1978); Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (1978-1984); Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (1984-1997); and became a full Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School 1997. Dr. Kistler is the recipient of the C. Miller Fisher Award for outstanding achievement in neuroscience by the American Heart Association and the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award by Harvard Medical School. Kistler has 77 original reports and articles which have been published in various scientific publications and has written 74 invited journal editorials, review articles, and chapters.