About the Surgeons

The 17 faculty members of the University of Florida Department of Neurosurgery practicing at Shands at UF are nationally and internationally renowned in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the brain and spine, as well as for their work in advancing neurosurgical care through clinical and basic science research.

With expertise that encompasses virtually every clinical specialty in neurosurgery, they are dedicated to delivering advanced treatment in the most caring, accessible environment possible.

William A. Friedman, MD
Professor & Chairman
Albert L. Rhoton, Jr, MD, Chairman's Professor

William A. Friedman, MD, A.L. Rhoton Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, was born in Dayton, Ohio on April 25, 1953. He attended high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated in 1970 as a National Merit Scholar and attended Oberlin College. There he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society, before moving on to the Ohio State University College of Medicine. Before graduating summa cum laude from medical school in 1976, he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and received the Maurice B. Rusoff Award for excellence in medicine.

In 1976, Dr. Friedman moved to the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. He performed a surgical internship and a neurosurgical residency, from which he graduated in 1982. During residency training he did basic neurophysiology research as an NIH postdoctoral fellow. In 1982, he joined the faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery, as an Assistant Professor. He received an NIH Teacher Investigator Award, from July, 1982 - July, 1987, which funded further research into the basic neurophysiology of spinal cord injuries. In addition, this award supported the development of one of the first intraoperative neurophysiology monitoring laboratories, subsequently used to monitor thousands of neurosurgical and orthopedic surgical cases. Dr. Friedman served as Medical Director of the Intraoperative Neurophysiology Service from 1982-1992.

Dr. Friedman was promoted to associate professor and received tenure in August 1987. In August 1991 he was promoted to Professor. He currently serves as Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery and the A. L. Rhoton Professor of Neurosurgery. He is the author of more than 200 articles and book chapters and has written a book on radiosurgery. He is a member of numerous professional organizations. Most notably, he has served as President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Florida Neurosurgical Society and the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society. He is the past editor of Neurosurgery On Call, a Web site of organized neurosurgery.

In 1986, Dr. Friedman began collaborative work with Dr. Frank Bova, which led to the development of the UF radiosurgery system. This system was subsequently patented by the University of Florida. The commercial version of the system has become one of the most popular radiosurgical systems worldwide. Drs. Friedman and Bova received the 1990 UF College of Medicine Clinical Research Prize in recognition of this accomplishment. Dr. Friedman is the leader of a multidisciplinary radiosurgery team which has treated over 2000 patients, published more than 100 papers and chapters, produced many international meetings, and educated hundreds of visiting physicians. This team is engaged in many ongoing research projects in the new radiosurgery/radiobiology laboratory in the UF McKnight Brain Institute. Most recently, they Drs. Bova and Friedman received an NIH R01 grant to support their research efforts.

Erin M. Dunbar, MD
Assistant Professor
Co-Director, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy

Erin M. Dunbar, MD, was born in New Haven, CT on August 26, 1974. She graduated with honors from Leon High School in Tallahassee. She graduated cum laude with a BS in biology from Florida State University, in Tallahassee. She completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and medical oncology fellowship at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She received service, professional and academic awards during her training, including election into the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha academic honor societies. She completed a dedicated neuro-oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.

In July 2007, she joined the faculty as an assistant professor in the department of neurosurgery. She also serves as co-director of the Preston a. Wells, Jr., Center for Brain Tumor Therapy and Neuro-Oncology Program; director of neuro-oncology clinical-research, its database and clinical trials office; administrator of the medical Neuro-Oncology service; and member of the state legislature-mandated Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research.

Dr. Dunbar is an active member the academic societies involved in the care of primary and metastatic brain and spinal tumors, including the Society of Neuro-Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncologists, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. She is involved in numerous translational and clinical research initiatives at both UF and in collaborations with other institutions, including Johns Hopkins.

Kelly D. Foote, MD
Assistant Professor
Co-Director, Movement Disorders Center

Kelly D. Foote, MD, is a graduate of the University of Utah, where he completed a BS degree in Materials Engineering as well as his Doctorate of Medicine. The university's School of Medicine honored him with the Florence M. Strong Award in recognition of his outstanding qualities as a physician dedicated to patients. He did his general surgery internship at the University of Florida, where he also completed his residency in neurological surgery, including one year of dedicated training in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery under the mentorship of Dr. William Friedman.

In 2002, he completed additional specialized training in movement disorder neurosurgery and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) at the Universite Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, and Emory University in Atlanta -- two of the world's leading centers for such studies. Dr. Foote is the co-director of the UF Movement Disorders Center and has strong clinical and research interests in the application of computers and high technology to neurosurgical problems. His areas of expertise include deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease and other disorders, stereotactic and functional neurosurgery, radiosurgery and brain tumors. His research investigating novel applications of deep brain stimulation is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and his work in the fields of DBS and radiosurgery has been extensively published.

Dr. Foote is sought after as a teacher and a dynamic public speaker. He moderates a nationwide online forum for the National Parkinson Foundation called "Ask the Surgeon", in which he responds to patients' questions regarding DBS and the surgical treatment of Parkinson's disease. As a consultant for Medtronic, Inc., the manufacturer of DBS devices, he teaches courses for physicians on how to perform DBS surgery, and he earns consistently stellar reviews from medical students and residents as a neurosurgery professor at the UF College of Medicine.

He is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Congress of Neurological Surgeons annual resident award and the Charles Chuck Shank Award for Excellence in Neurosurgery at the University of Florida. Dr. Foote is an avid sportsman who enjoys basketball, scuba diving, volleyball and snowboarding. He also speaks French fluently and enjoys travel and cinema.

Brian L. Hoh, MD
Assistant Professor
William Merz Professorship in Neurological Surgery

Brian L. Hoh, MD, the William Merz Professor in neurological surgery and associate program director, is an assistant professor of neurological surgery with a joint appointment in radiology. He obtained his undergraduate degree with honors at Stanford University. He then attended Columbia University for his medical degree where he was elected admission to Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. He completed his internship in surgery, residency in neurological surgery, and fellowship in endovascular neurosurgery and interventional neuroradiology at Harvard University at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He received the Boston Neurology Society's Stanley Cobb award and the New England Neurosurgical Society's William Scoville award for his research on aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations.

Dr. Hoh has received numerous grants in support of his research efforts. He won the Anspach 2006 Research Award for his research on carotid stenosis, and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons 2007 Young Clinician Investigator Award for his research on aneurysms. He has published over 30 peer reviewed papers and four book chapters. He has made over 80 presentations at scientific meetings.

Dr. Hoh is the senior principal investigator of an international multicenter trial for patients with large and giant intracranial aneurysms (PAC for Large and Giant Aneurysms) that will begin enrolling patients worldwide in 2008.

Dr. Hoh is a member of the Joint AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section, a senior member of the Society for Neurointerventional Surgery (formerly the ASITN), a member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, an active provisional member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, a member of the American Stroke Association, the Stroke Council, and the American Heart Association.

Dr. Hoh performs both direct surgical procedures (craniotomy, aneurysm clipping, carotid endarterectomy, EC-IC bypass, and surgical resection of AVMs, cavernous malformations, and brain tumors) and minimally invasive endovascular procedures for cerebrovascular disorders (aneurysm coiling, balloon angioplasty, carotid stenting, vertebral artery stenting, intracranial stenting, AVM embolization, tumor embolization).

Dr. Hoh's laboratory performs research investigating the role of hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells in cerebrovascular disease, specifically carotid atherosclerosis, aneurysm formation, aneurysm recanalization after coil embolization, and stroke. He works closely with Dr. Edward W. Scott, the Director of the UF Program in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. They are studying the migration of hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells to sites of vascular injury and the signaling pathways involved in this process. They are interested in the role of hematopoietic stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells in vascular repair and how this fails and results in carotid atherosclerosis, aneurysm formation, aneurysm recanalization after coil embolization, and stroke. They are interested in the genetic modification of endothelial progenitor cells to enhance their ability for vascular repair as a potential biologic therapy for cerebrovascular disorders.

R. Patrick Jacob, MD
Associate Professor
Dunspaugh-Dalton Professor

R. Patrick Jacob, MD was born in Toledo, Ohio on December 26, 1957. He attended Fordham College and graduated with a BS in Psychology in 1979. He then earned his medical degree at the University of Florida in 1983. He was a surgical intern in 1984 and completed his neurosurgical residency training at UF in 1989. He was board certified in Neurosurgery in 1992 and became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1984. He was in private practice in nearby Ocala, Florida, for several years and returned to join the UF faculty in 1992. Currently he is the Dunspaugh-Dalton Professor of Spinal Surgery at the UF department of neurosurgery.

Dr. Jacob has served on many committees within the medical center. He is currently medical director of the Neurosurgery Clinic. He is a member of the Spinal Cord Injury Advisory Council for the State of Florida. Dr. Jacob is a past president of the Florida Neurosurgical Society. Nationally, Dr. Jacob is a member of the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies and is the CNS representative to the CPT Editorial Panel Advisory Panel of the American Medical Association.

Stephen B. Lewis, MD
Assistant Professor
James and Newton Eblen Professor

Stephen B. Lewis, MD , James and Newton Eblen Eminent Scholar in Cerebrovascular Surgery and assistant professor in the UF department of neurosurgery was born in Perth, Western Australia. He attended medical school at the University of Western Australia, became president of the medical students society in 1984 and graduated in 1985. He completed his internship year at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in 1986 and then undertook junior resident rotations in intensive care medicine, general surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, cardiothoracic and neurological surgery.

From 1992 to 1995 he studied acute brain injury at the University of Adelaide and was recipient of the WG Norman Research Scholarship (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons 1993 and 1994). This research focused on intracranial pressure waveform analysis and multimodality monitoring of acute brain injury.

Dr. Lewis received numerous awards including the RP Jebson Medal (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons 1993 and 1994), Young Investigators Award (Surgical Research Society of Australasia 1995) and the Peter Leech Prize (Neurosurgical Society of Australasia 1996).

After completing his neurosurgery training and board certification with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (Neurosurgery) in 2000, Dr. Lewis undertook a fellowship in Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Tumor Surgery at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square London. Prior to accepting a position at UF, he completed a cerebrovascular surgery and skull base tumor fellowship.

Dr. Lewis is a member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, North American Skull Base Society, Joint AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section, Joint AANS/CNS Neurotrauma and Critical Care Section, and the Neurosurgical Society of Auralasia. He currently serves on the medical advisory board for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. He has authored more than 50 scientific articles and given more than 80 presentations at national and international scientific meetings.

Dr. Lewis has an active basic science research interest in biomarkers of brain injury after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and trauma. He collaborates with professor Gerry Shaw at the McKnight Brain Institute. Their work examines the association of biomarkers detectable in CSF and serum to brain injury and recovery. This work has the potential to guide treatment after brain injury and provide early warning of impending neurological decline and stroke. This work has been published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurotrauma, and the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

Dr. Lewis performs the complete range of open surgical procedures for cerebrovascular disease (including craniotomy and clipping of cerebral aneurysms, resection of arteriovenous malformations, cavernous malformations, EC-IC bypass procedures, carotid endarterectomies) and skull base tumors (craniotomy and endoscopic transnasal approaches).

J. Richard Lister, MD, MBA
Professor
Associate Chairman

J. Richard Lister, MD, MBA, was born in Carlinville, Illinois. He graduated with a BA from the University of Missouri in 1971 and received his MD degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1975. In May 2003, he received his MBA degree from the Bradley University Foster College of Business Administration.

Dr. Lister completed his surgical internship at Shands at UF in 1976. Dr. Lister continued his graduate education at the Shands at UF and completed a residency in neurological surgery in 1981. He received board certification from the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 1983.

In 1981, Dr. Lister joined the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria as clinical assistant professor of neurological surgery in the department of neurosciences. He was promoted to clinical associate professor of neurological urgery in 1990 and clinical professor in the department of neurosurgery in 1998. He was actively engaged in the practice of neurological surgery as a neurosurgical oncologist until 2000. In September 2000, he was appointed associate dean for strategic planning and development at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria. He was appointed associate dean for research and economic development at the College of Medicine in 2004 and was appointed senior associate dean in late 2005. He served as managing director from 2002-2006 of Peoria NEXT, a consortium of education, business, and research institutions focused on Discovery, Innovation and Commercialization in support of the Knowledge Economy. From 2003 to 2007 he served as a mayoral appointed commissioner to the Renaissance Park Commission, an urban research and development corridor.

In May of 2006 he was appointed interim chairman and residency program director of the UICOMP department of neurological surgery. He held those positions in addition to his Senior Associate Dean appointment until May 2007 when he accepted a new patient appointment as professor, associate residency program director and associate chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the UF.

Effective July 1, 2007 he was appointed Chief of the Neurosurgical Service at the NF/SG VHS, January 1, 2008 he was appointed Residency Program Director. He has served as a member and officer of many community, regional, state and national health care related boards and organizations.

J Mocco, MD, MS
Assistant Professor

J Mocco, MD, MS obtained his Bachelor of Science degree with honors at the University of Miami. He then attended Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he completed his medical degree. After finishing his internship in general surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, he spent one year performing a post-doctoral research fellowship evaluating the pathophysiologic mechanisms of stroke under Drs. David Pinsky and E. Sander Connolly at Columbia University. Following this year he entered and completed a residency in neurological surgery at the New York Neurological Institute, part of the Columbia University Medical Center. Simultaneous to completing his neurosurgical training, Dr. Mocco completed a Masters of Science degree in Biostatistics at Columbia University, with a concentration on clinical research methodology and analysis. Following the conclusion of his residency, Dr. Mocco completed an endovascular neurosurgery fellowship under the tutelage of Dr. L.N. Hopkins at the world renowned Gates Stroke Center, while concurrently studying the inter-relationship between cerebrovascular biology and intravascular hemodynamics at the Toshiba Stroke Research Laboratory. During the aforementioned years of training Dr. Mocco received numerous awards, including the Congress of Neurological Surgeons James Garber Galbraith Award, the New York Society of Neurosurgery outstanding research award, Columbia University's Department of Neurosurgery George L. Becker Award, and an NIH/AMSA/AAMC Biomedical Research Forum Award.

Dr. Mocco has received numerous local, regional, and national grants in support of his research efforts. He was awarded one of only two national Brain Aneurysm Foundation Research Grants to support his investigations into the contribution of hemodynamic stress on cerebral aneurysm initiation. The Congress of Neurological Surgeons awarded Dr. Mocco the Wilder Penfield Research Fellowship to support his clinical research evaluating new applications of a class of medications thought to aid recovery after subarachnoid hemorrhage. He also received an NIH-NINDS FY2004: Clinical Research LRP for his investigations into outcomes following ruptured brain aneurysms. The American Heart Association awarded Dr. Mocco a research fellowship to study the contribution of the immune system to progressive injury following stroke. Additionally, Dr. Mocco received research support from the New York Academy of Medicine for his investigations into the development of novel stroke models.

Dr. Mocco has over 100 accepted peer reviewed publications, 17 solicited editorials, and nine book chapters. He is also co-editor of a text book on neurosurgical operative technique.

Dr. Mocco is a member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Joint AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section, the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, the Society for Neurointerventional Surgery (formerly the ASITN), and the Neurocritical Care Society. He currently serves on the Joint Guidelines Committee of the AANS/CNS, the CNS Fellowship Committee, the International Stroke Meeting Abstract Selection Committee, and the CNS Abstract Selection Committee. Dr. Mocco also reviews submitted articles for the following peer review journals: Stroke, Neurology, Neurosurgery, European Journal of Neurology, Brain Research, Neuroscience Letters, and Biologics: Targets and Therapy.

Dr. Mocco's major areas of clinical interest are stroke, brain aneurysms, subarachnoid hemorrhage, arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), cavernous malformations, carotid artery stenosis, intracranial stenosis, and brain tumors. Dr. Mocco performs both open surgical procedures (craniotomy, aneurysm clipping, carotid endarterectomy, EC-IC bypass, and surgical resection of AVMs, cavernous malformations, and brain tumors) as well as minimally invasive endovascular procedures for cerebrovascular disorders (acute stroke intervention, aneurysm coiling, balloon angioplasty, carotid stenting, vertebral artery stenting, intracranial stenting, AVM embolization, tumor embolization).

Dr. Mocco's scientific interests are focused on translational efforts to treat ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. This involves laboratory investigations into the pathophysiology of stroke and the brain's efforts at healing itself through the utilization of brain stem cells. It also requires evaluating, through computational fluid dynamic modeling, the interaction between the hemodynamic stresses applied to brain blood vessels and the biologic responses of those vessels, thereby helping to elucidate the critical contributions of hemodynamics to the development of brain pathology. Using the information and experience gained in the experimental efforts listed above, Dr. Mocco is working to develop new technologies, techniques, and therapeutics to directly improve the care administered to stroke patients. These new devices, medications, and procedures will then be critically tested in high quality clinical research trials, with the eventual goal of making substantial advancements in ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke care.

Dr. Mocco is happily married to Wendy Mocco. The Moccos have one son, Finn Thomas Mocco.

Gregory J.A. Murad, MD
Assistant Professor

Gregory J.A. Murad, MD, received his BS degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in 1997 and his medical degree in May of 2001 from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. In 2001, he began his neurosurgical training at the University of Florida. In 2004, he spent a year as a Clinical Fellow at the N.I.H./NINDS studying investigational treatment for brain tumors under the guidance of Dr. Ed Oldfield.

Dr. Murad was honored as the recipient of the Highest resident Board score award in 2006, the Resident research award in 2006, and the Charles P. Chuck Shank award in 2007. Dr. Murad completed his residency in June 2007 and joined the faculty as a Clinical Lecturer.

David W. Pincus, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
L. D. Hupp Professor

David W. Pincus, MD, PhD, was born in New Haven, CT in 1963. He grew up in Massachusetts where he attended high school at Deerfield Academy. After graduating from Yale College with a BS degree in biology, Dr. Pincus obtained MD and PhD degrees from Cornell University. His PhD thesis work focused on the development of precursor cells (stem cells) in the nervous system. He then pursued a neurosurgical residency at the Neurological Institute of New York at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. During his residency training he continued his work with neuronal precursor cells, now with human brain samples, and received the Congress of Neurological Surgeons' Resident Award in 1996.

After completing his chief residency at Columbia, Dr. Pincus served as a pediatric neurosurgical fellow at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. He then accepted a position as an attending at Children's where he remained for one year prior to being asked to join the department of neurosurgery at the University of Florida. As the primary pediatric neurosurgeon at the UF, Dr. Pincus takes care of all neurosurgical problems in children.

Dr. Pincus is board certified by both the American Board of Neurological Surgeons and the American Board of Pediatric Neurosurgeons and is a member of the American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgeons.

Albert L. Rhoton, Jr., MD
Professor & Chairman Emeritus
R. D. Keene Family Professor

Albert L. Rhoton, Jr., MD, was born in Parvin, Kentucky. He attended Washington University Medical School where he graduated with the highest academic standing in the class of 1959. He completed his internship at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City and returned to Washington University in St. Louis for his neurosurgical training. After completing residency training in 1965 he joined the staff of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he served as a staff neurosurgeon until 1972 when he became the Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Florida. Dr. Rhoton has served as President of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the North American Skull Base Society, the Interdisciplinary Congress on Craniofacial and Skull Base Surgery, the Florida Neurosurgical Society, and the International Society for Neurosurgical Technology and Instrument Invention. In 1998 he was the recipient of the Cushing medal, the highest honor granted by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He has served as the Honored Guest or been elected to Honorary Membership in neurosurgical societies in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America. He has served on the American Board of Neurological Surgery. He has published more than 250 scientific papers and one book, and has served on the Editorial Boards of six different surgical journals. He has received an Alumni Achievement Award from the Washington University School of Medicine and a Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Florida. He has been cited as being among the best doctors in America in several books and also in publications by Good Housekeeping, America's Health, and Town and Country. He and his wife, Joyce, have four children, all pursuing medical careers.

Steven N. Roper, MD
Professor
Edward Shedd Wells Professor

Steven N. Roper, MD, received his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M in 1981, summa cum laude. He then attended medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch until 1985. He performed his internship and neurosurgical residency at the UCLA School of Medicine, where he also obtained special training in epilepsy surgery. He has received numerous honors, including National Merit Scholar, and Alpha Omega Alpha. He joined the faculty of the UF department of neurosurgery in 1992. He currently serves as the surgical director of the University of Florida Comprehensive Epilepsy Program and has performed over 1,000 surgeries for the treatment of epilepsy. He is also the surgical director of the University of Florida Neuroendocrine Program and frequently performs surgeries for pituitary tumors using minimally invasive approaches.

Dr. Roper has received numerous grants, including funding from the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the National Institutes of Health, and the McKnight Foundation. These funds support ongoing research in his laboratory, where he and his colleagues are investigating the neurophysiological basis of epilepsy.

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Neurosurgery at Shands at UF

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