Welcome

Presenters

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  Sharona Ben-Haim, MD

  Associate Professor

  University of California, San Diego · CARDIFF BY THE SEA, California

  Sharona Ben-Haim, MD, is currently an Associate Professor, the Associate Residency Program Director, the Director of the Surgical Epilepsy Program in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Ben-Haim is an academic functional neurosurgeon whose practice focuses on advancing surgery for the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy, deep-brain stimulation for movement disorders, and surgery for chronic pain, including facial pain. She studies cerebral networks of pain processing as well as advanced intracranial neurophysiology using novel electrode interfaces.

  She serves on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN) and is also a member-at-large of the Executive Committee of the AANS/CNS Section on Pain. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS).

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  Nir Lipsman, MD PhD FRCSC

  Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery

  University of Toronto · Toronto, Ontario

  Dr. Nir Lipsman is the Dan Family Chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and Head of Neurosurgery at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He holds the Harquail Chair in Neuromodulation and directs Sunnybrook’s Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation and Focused Ultrasound Centre of Excellence. He completed his MD at Queen’s University, followed by neurosurgical residency, a PhD, and fellowship training in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lipsman leads one of the world’s most comprehensive neuromodulation programs and has conducted pioneering trials of MR-guided focused ultrasound (FUS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). These include early studies of ablative FUS for essential tremor, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression; DBS for post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder; and world-first trials of FUS-mediated blood–brain barrier opening in brain tumours, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and Parkinson’s disease. An internationally recognized leader in functional neurosurgery, he serves as President and Board Chair of the International Focused Ultrasound Society. He has held leadership roles in major international neurosurgical societies and received numerous awards for research and education, including selected as one of Canada's top 40 under 40 and the Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research.