Dr Richard Bernstein was born in New York City. He attended Cornell University where he studied biochemistry, then earned a PhD at The Rockefeller University in Molecular Biology. After completing medical school at Cornell University Medical College, he did his medical internship at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. He was a resident and chief resident in Neurology at the Neurological Institute, Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, also in New York City. He then moved to California, where he completed a unique combined fellowship in Neurovascular Critical Care at the University of California, San Francisco, and in Cerebrovascular Disease at Stanford University. He moved to Northwestern University after working as an attending physician at Stanford for one year.

Dr. Bernstein's clinical activities include taking care of acute stroke patients and patients with complex cerebrovascular problems at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and at the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation. He is a full time faculty member of the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University. His research interests focus on acute stroke treatment and in stroke prevention. He has a particular interest in novel methods for detecting atrial fibrillation in patients with stroke, and in the study of new anticoagulants for preventing stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. He works closely with other members of the Northwestern faculty in cardiology, neurovascular surgery, and neuroradiology.