Mathias Bähr obtained his MD in 1985 from the University of Tübingen Medical School, Department of Neuropathology. Following this, he started his training in neurology at the University of Düsseldorf before taking up a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max-Planck-Institute of Developmental Neurobiology from 1987-1989. In 1988 he began another postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University, St. Louis, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. From 1989 to 1993 he led a research group at the Max-Planck-Institute of Developmental Neurobiology in Tübingen, completing his neurology training at the Department of Neurology at the University of Tübingen. Mathias Bähr gained his Board Certification in neurology in 1993, qualifying as a lecturer for neurology and attendant at the Department of Neurology. In 1996 he was appointed Associate Professor at the same department and offered an endowed chair for Clinical and Experimental Neurology. Since 2001 Professor Bähr is the Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University of Göttingen Medical School.