
Several times throughout the year, the U-M Department of Neurosurgery welcomes invited guest speakers and lecturers to present on a variety of neurosurgery-specific topics. Click below to view a historical list of past visiting professors and their topics:
- Elizabeth Crosby Lecture
- Saeed Farhat Lecture - Socioeconomic Issues
- Julian T. Hoff Lecture
- Edgar A. Kahn Lecture
- James Taren Lecture - Functional Neurosurgery
- Joan Venes Lecture - Pediatric Neurosurgery
Historical List of Elizabeth Crosby Visiting Professors

2006 - Anne Osborn, University of Utah - "Cerebral Microvasculature"
2007 - Colin Derdeyn, Washington University - "Cerebrovascular Disease"
2008 - Thomas Naidich, Mount Sinai School of Medicine - "MR Microscopy"
2009 - Wayne Aldridge, University of Michigan - "Neural Mechanisms in Basal Ganglia"
2010 - Jeff Keller, Mayfield Clinic, University of Cincinnati - "Translational Anatomy"
2011 - Linda Liau, University of California, Los Angeles - Brain Tumor Immunotherapy"
2012 - James Augustine, University of South Carolina - Crosby, Augustine, and the Insula"
2013 - R. Shane Tubbs, Children's of Alabama - Reverse Translational Research in Neuroanatomy"
2014 - Michael Lawton, University of California, San Francisco - "The Vascular Manifesto"
2015 - Matthew Howard, University of Iowa - "Neurosurgical Studies of Normal Human Brain Physiology" & "Medical Device Inventions and Technology Transfer"
2016 - Christopher Shaffrey, University of Virginia - "Why Should a Neurosurgeon Care About Spine Deformity?"
2017 - Eric Holland, University of Washington - "Mouse Models of Brain Tumors" and "Big Data Visualization of Human Gliomas"
2018 - Robert Spinner, The Mayo Clinic - "MRI Targeted Nerve Biopsy"
2019 - Robert Harbaugh, Penn State Hershey Medical Center - "The Future of Neurosurgical Education"
2020 - Susan Chang, The University of California, San Francisco - "Advanced Imaging of Glioma"
2021 - Stuart Grossman, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - "Clinical Updates in Neuro-Oncology: 2021" & "Will the Next 30 Years Be Different for Patients with Glioblastoma?"
2022 - Amy Heimberger, Northwestern University - "Immune Reactivity to the CNS Tumor Landscape: Implications for Immunotherapy"
Historical List of Saaed Farhat Visiting Professors
2013 - Steve Swanson, John Nasseff Neuroscience Institute - "Physician Leadership - A Trilogy: Mentorship, Leading in Ambiguity, The Patient"
2014 - John Wilson, Wake Forest Baptist Health - "Health Care Reform: My View on the Way Forward"
2015 - Stephen Ondra, Health Care Service Corporation - "Understanding Sagittal Balance to Improve Spine Assessment and Treatment" & "Health Reform Beyond the Affordable Care Act: The Drivers and Directions of Change"
2016 - Katie O'Meara Orrico, AANS & CNS - "Health Care Paradigm Shift: Moving from Volume to Value" & "Health Care Reform: Is the Affordable Care Act Living Up to its Promises?"
2017 - Joseph Cheng, Yale - New Haven Medical Center - "Helping Solve our Healthcare Crisis - What Neurosurgeons Need to Know"
2018 - Shelly Timmons, Penn State University - "Anti-Thrombotic Medications and Traumatic Brain Injury"
2019 - Alex B. Valadka, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine - "TBI Management and the VCU Legacy" and "Major League Baseball's Approach to Concussion"
2020 - Gail Rosseau, George Washington University - "Global Neurosurgery: Diversity in Neurosurgery"
2021 - Sepideh Amin-Hanjani, The University of Illinois at Chicago - "Evidence-based Neurosurgery: What role should we play?"
2022 - Judy Huang, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - "Aneurysm Surgery Training in the Interventional Age" & "Hemorrhage Risks of Arteriovenous Malformations"
Historical List of Julian T. Hoff Visiting Professors

2012 - Robert Dempsey, University of Wisconsin - "Julian Hoff: Inspiration and Starting Your Academic Career"
2013 - James Markert, University of Alabama, Birmingham - "Development of oncolytic viruses as potential therapeutics for gliomas, and increasing neurosurgical resident participation in research"
2014 - Keith Black, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center - "Brain Tumors: From Vaccines to Intra-Operative Imaging"
2015 - Kevin Lillehei, University of Colorado - "Craniopharyngioma: A Changing Paradigm in Therapy" & "Madaktari Africa: Neurosurgery in Tanzania"
2016 - Nathan Selden, Oregon Health & Science University - "Neural Stem Cell Transplantation: Safety and Long-Term Outcomes"
2017 - Nelson Oyesiku, Emory University - "Over-expression of MAMLD1 in human and dog Cushing's disease"
2018 - William T. Couldwell, University of Utah - "Surgery of the Paracentral Skull Base"
2019 - E. Antonio Chiocca, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School - "Gene and Oncolytic Virus Clinical Trials for GBM"
2020 - Julie Pilitsis, Albany Medical College - "Diversity in Neurosurgery: Patients and Providers; Functional Case Review"
2021 - Brian L. Hoh, The University of Florida - "Pharmacotherapeutic Targets for Cerebral Aneurysms" & "Surgical and Endovascular Treatment for Cerebral Aneurysms"
2022 - Shawn Hervey-Jumper, The University of California, San Francisco - "Diffuse Gliomas Remodel Neural Circuits in the Human Brain" & "Revisiting the Surgical Management of Diffuse Gliomas in the Molecular Era"
2023 - John H. Shin, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School - "The Value of Multidisciplinary Collaboration in Spine Oncology"
Historical List of Edgar A. Kahn Visiting Professors

2005 - Robert Rosenwasser, Thomas Jefferson University - "Endovascular Management of Aneurysms"
2006 - Robert Harbaugh, Penn State University - "Evidence-based Medicine"
2007 - Edward Benzel, The Cleveland Clinic - "Spine Surgery"
2008 - Harold Rekate, The Barrow Neurological Institute - "Hydrocephalus"
2009 - Mitchell Berger, The University of California, San Francisco - "Glioma Outcomes"
2010 - Roberto Heros, University of Miami - "Intracranial Dural Fistulas & Spinal AVMs"
2011 - Ralph Dacey, Washington University, St. Louis - "Surgical considerations in management of saccular and fusiform middle cerebral artery aneurysms. Challenges to resident training."
2012 - Jacques Morcos, Jackson Memorial Medical Center/Lois Pope Life Center - "Cerebral Veins: Friends or Foes?"
2013 - Ziya Gokasian, The Johns Hopkins University - "Current Surgical Treatment of Spinal Neoplasms"
2014 - Nick Barbaro, Indiana University School of Medicine - "Surgery and Radiosurgery for Epilepsy"
2015 - Fredric Meyer, Mayo Clinic - "16 Rules of Neurosurgery" & "Triple Threat"
2016 - Howard A. Riina, New York University - "Hybrid Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery and its implications for training cerebrovascular specialists of the future" & "Medical Device Innovation"
2017 - E. Sander Connolly, Jr., Columbia University - "Carotid Endarterectomy: Trials and Tribulations"
2018 - Robert Spetzler, Barrow Neurological Institute - "Management of vascular malformations" and "Cavernous malformations: What have they taught us"
2019 - Dean Chou, University of California, San Francisco - "Treatment Strategies for Adult Scoliosis: Does Everybody Need T10 to the Pelvis?"
2020 - Gerald Rodts, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta - "Failed Back Surgery Syndrome: A Missed Diagnosis" and "Surgical Treatment of Occipital-Cervical and High Cervical Pathology"
2021 - Laurence Rhines, MD Anderson/The University of Texas - "Primary Spinal Column Tumors: Evaluation and Management" & "A Case Review"
2022 - Nicholas Theodore, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - "Engineering the Future of Spinal Surgery"
2023 - Pascal M. Jabbour, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital - '“Supersubspecialization” in Neurosurgery: The Vascular Paradigm – A Double-Edge Sword' & "Challenges in Stroke Treatment : Playing in Synchrony"
Historical List of James Taren Visiting Professors

2011 - Ali Rezai, Ohio State University Medical Center - "The Use of DBS for Treating Depression"
2012 - Dennis Spencer, Yale-New Haven Medical Center - "Intracranial Electrodes"
2013 - Martin Weinand, University of Arizona - "Surgical Treatment of Medically Intractable Temporal Lobe Epilepsy"
2014 - Bruce Pollock, Mayo Medical Center - "A Mid-Term Assessment of Intracranial Stereotactic Radiosurgery"
2015 - L. Dade Lunsford, Standford University - "Radiosurgery for Brain Vascular Malformations: Lessons Learned over 25 Years"
2016 - Jaimie Henderson, University of Pittsburgh - "Intracortical Brain-Machine Interfaces for People with Paralysis" & "From Space Ships to Miasma: The Ups and Downs of Data Visualization"
2017 - Aviva Abosch - University of Colorado - "Sleep and Parkinson's Disease"
2018 - Emad N. Eskandar, Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine - "Insights into Cognition from Intracranial Physiology" and "Oral Boards Style Cases"
2019 - Kendall H. Lee, The Mayo Clinic - "Neural-Engineering Implantable Technologies for Neuro-Psychiatric Disorders in Neurosurgery"
2020 - Edward Chang, The University of California, San Francisco - "Toward a Speech Neuroprosthesis"
2021 - Philip Starr, The University of California, San Francisco - "Brain Sensing: The Next Big Advance in Functional Neurosurgery"
2022 - Jamie J. Van Gompel, The Mayo Clinic - "Keeping the Brain Out of the Bucket: The Changing Paradigm of Epilepsy Surgery and the Potential of Neurorestoration Through Directed Brain Stimulation" & "Esthesioneuroblastoma: Multimodal Management and Results of the Largest Institutional Case Series"
Historical List of Joan Venes Visiting Professors

2011 - Jeffrey Wisoff, NYU Langone Medical Center - "Surgical Treatment of Pediatric Craniopharyngiomas"
2012 - Richard Ellenbogen, University of Washington - "Pineal Region Tumors"
2013 - Mark Souweidane, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center - "Colloid Cyst Management in the Endoscopic Era"
2014 - Edward Smith, Children's Hospital of Boston - "Why Pediatric Cerebrovascular Disease is Worse than Ohio State (Initiatives in the Clinic and Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital)”
2015 - Douglas Brockmeyer, University of Utah - "Is the Head Bone Connected to the Neck Bone? The Elusive Search for Determinants of Craniocervical Stability" & "Complex Chiari, Complex Spine... and Back Again"
2016 - Jeffrey Ojemann, University of Washington, Seattle Children's Hospital - "Motor Plasticity - Electrocorticography Studies" & "Toward Less Invasive Epilepsy Surgery"
2017 - Bermans J. Iskandar, University of Wisconsin - "Educating our Patients and Ourselves through Research. A Hydrocephalus Journey" & "Parameters of Folate-Mediated Epigenetic Tissue Regeneration and Fairytale Heroines"
2018 - Michael D. Taylor, University of Toronto - "Medulloblastoma, from Myth to Molecular" and "Molecular Heterogeneity as a Barrier and Opportunity in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients with Ependymoma"
2019 - Ian F. Pollock, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine - "The Evolving Role of Surgery and Molecular Profiling in Childhood Brain Tumors" and "Immunotherapy for Childhood Gliomas"
2020 - James Drake, University of Toronto/Hospital for Sick Children - "Developing technology for pediatric neurosurgical interventions" & "Pediatric hydrocephalus: What has the last two decades shown us?"
2021 - Howard L. Weiner, Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine - "Epilepsy Surgery for Children: A 25-Year Perspective" & "Reflections on Developing an Academic Practice: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Pediatric Neurosurgery"
2022 - John Ragheb, The University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital - "Neurosurgery Training in the Developing World – Wins, Losses, and Opportunities" & "Hemispherectomy for Childhood Epilepsy: The 30-Year Miami Experience"