B.J. and Eve Wilder Excellence in Epilepsy Research Fund

Established by B. J. and Eve Wilder in 2003 to support interdisciplinary teaching, research and programs in Epilepsy research in the Center for Epilepsy Research. The Center was created to promote basic research in the neurological disorder of epilepsy.

B.J. joined the University of Florida faculty team in 1966 and was involved in the clinical development of all new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat epileptic patients between 1975 and 1988. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1951 and his medical degree MD in 1955, both from Duke University.

After serving 2 years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. and a year of surgical residency training at Coral Gables Veterans Affairs Hospital, B.J. entered private practice as a family physician in Fernandina Beach in 1959. In 1962, he did his neurological training at the University of Florida. In 1965, he received a post-doctoral fellowship award in neurophysiology and epilepsy at Stanford University. He joined the UF faculty in 1966 and was subsequently awarded a clinical fellowship in epilepsy at the VA Hospital in Gainesville. He became chief of the neurology service until 1994 and is the founder and president of the Epilepsy Research Foundation of Florida, Inc.

Eve earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1952.