Dr. Buchanan holds a primary appointment in the CCOM as the Beth L. Tross Epilepsy Associate Professor in Neurology. Dr. Buchanan is a member of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute, Pappajohn Biomedical Institute, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, and Clinical Neuro-Scientist Training Program. Dr. Buchanan has a long-standing commitment to the training of physician-scientists. He is a graduate of the Medical Scholar Program (MD/PhD Program) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an active physician-scientist caring for patients with neurological disease, especially epilepsy, and studying basic neuroscience in the lab. He previously oversaw research training in neurology for medical students and led the research training track in neurology at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Buchanan has been involved with the Iowa MSTP since arriving at Iowa in 2015. He assumed the director role in 2023. Dr. Buchanan is committed to mentorship, which he considers to be among his top academic and professional priorities. He oversees the development and implementation of the overall MSTP curriculum. He is particularly involved in advising trainees during their initial medical phase of training, introducing them to the Individual Development Plan (IDP), and guiding their transition back to the medical curriculum after completion of the graduate phase of training. He is committed to ensuring an inclusive culture of excellence with trainees with all different types on lived experiences in the MSTP. He helps each trainee identify and navigate an individualized career development pathway to ensure timely progress towards career advancement.

Dr. Buchanan is recognized as a leader for his basic research on time-of-day- and sleep-state-dependent mechanisms for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, thrombosis, hemostasis, and vascular dysfunction. He is a fellow of the American Neurological Association and the American Epilepsy Society, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.