Biography
Dr. Aaron Lynn Cardon is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and the Director of Pediatric Epilepsy in the Division of Child Neurology at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Cardon studied Medicine and Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, culminating in a combined M.D./M.Sc. degree. Dr. Cardon’s master thesis work in medical school--recording local field potential changes in the hippocampus of freely-behaving rodents in response to addictive drug exposure--sparked his interests in neurophysiological recording and interpretation as well as memory circuitry in the brain. He continued his clinical training at Baylor College of Medicine through residency and fellowship, completing Child Neurology residency in 2015 and Clinical Neurophysiology fellowship in 2016. He practiced at Stanford/Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California, and then at Child Neurology Consultants of Austin in Texas treating epilepsy in children and adolescents before returning home to New Mexico. He is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Child Neurology and Epilepsy, and an active member of the American Epilepsy Society and Child Neurology Society.
He joined the faculty at UNM-HSC to bring this experience in treating difficult and medically refractory epilepsies home to New Mexico. In order to identify the source of a particular child’s seizures, better biomarkers from combined imaging, surface and intracranial EEG, and clinical data are needed to guide patients and families making these difficult and often frightening treatment decisions. Dr. Cardon recognizes this current clinical challenge and brings the most thorough and modern analysis to each patient’s case to decide between further medications, dietary therapy, or surgical treatments. In collaboration with pediatric neurosurgeons, he is working to expand the capabilities at UNM for advanced surgical treatments for children with epilepsy whose seizures are not controlled on medication.
In his free time, Dr. Cardon enjoys hiking and exploring nearby as well as back in the Jemez near his childhood home. He looks forward to teaching his children the excitement of skiing and snowboarding in the winter months and understands that his wife might be a lost cause. He can also be heard playing guitar at home, which his family say they adore despite its tenuous quality.