Dr. Ettore Beghi, died after a disease lasting several months on 10 October 2022, at age 75 years. Ettore Beghi was the founder of the Neurological Section at “Mario Negri” Institute in Milan, where he started working in 1977 and is considered to be the father of neuroepidemiology in Italy.

He was born in Cerro Maggiore, Italy, and received his Doctoral Degree in Medicine from the University of Milan in 1972.  After obtaining a Master of Pharmacology degree from the University of Milan in the year 1981, he completed a fellowship at Department of Medical Statistic and Epidemiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota (1982-83). This fellowship was conducted under the guidance of Dr Leonard Kurland, chair at the time of the Department of Health Sciences Research at Mayo Clinic. Dr Kurland had been the initiator of the epidemiological method in neurology and founder and leader of the Rochester Epidemiologic Project. Dr Kurland had been for Ettore the scientific mentor and friend for many years.

At the “Mario Negri” he started a program of research on Neuroepidemiology with particular emphasis on epilepsy, studying the clinical features as prognosis and treatment and the epidemiological characteristics. He also organized the first systematic epidemiological studies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Ettore was instrumental to the start of several registries in Italy and then in Europe where in 2004 he founded EURALS, the first consortium of ALS registries in Europe, chaired by him for several years. These efforts resulted in the new description of the clinical characteristics and geographic distribution of ALS in the real world.

At “Mario Negri” he established epidemiology as one of the major areas of research of the Institute.  His vision, persistence and scientific leadership led to an incredible number of studies in Italy and Europe on many neurological diseases such as Stroke, Parkinson disease, peripheral neuropathy, myasthenia gravis. He has developed over the years many trials on new drugs particularly in epilepsy and ALS. To date, his legacy has supported over 700 publications on the incidence, etiology, and outcomes of almost every neurological disease.

Ettore was exceptionally well known among neurologists and epidemiologists all around the world. His role as a leader is indicated by his service as chair of the Neuroepidemiology section of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), World federation of Neurology (WFN) and Associate Editor of Neuroepidemiology.

He has served as faculty at Cony for many years, linked with a professional and friendship bond with the Cony Founder, Prof. Amos Korczyn.

Through his research program at “Mario Negri” in the epidemiology of neurological disease, many doctoral and master’s degree candidates, young researchers and well- established neurologists and scientists have worked under his mentorship.

He was also an excellent clinician, leading the Lombardy regional center for epilepsy, and the service of neurophysiology at the “S.Gerardo” Hospital in Monza. He was a faculty at the School of Medicine the University of Milano-Bicocca.

Dr. Beghi was humble, gentle, friendly and ready to convey his substantive and methodological knowledge to everybody in formal and informal meetings. He will be missed but his work will be influential for years.