He was formerly Executive Vice President for Research and Development at Biogen and before that was Chief Scientific Officer for Neuroscience at Pfizer.
Prior to joining industry, Ehlers was the George Barth Geller Professor of Neurobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Duke University Medical Center.
His academic work was focused around neuronal organelles and the trafficking of neurotransmitter receptors.
[1] He has a BS in chemistry from Caltech in 1991 and an MD and a PhD in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with Richard L.
He was introduced to neurobiology when his girlfriend now wife suggested that math was involved with the field.