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    Jacques Morcos, MD, FRCS, FAANS

    President
    American Association of Neurological Surgeons

    Jacques J. Morcos, MD, FRCS(Eng), FRCS(Ed), FAANS, FCNS was appointed in 2023 to be Professor and Chairman of the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. He holds the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Chair is Co-Director of UTHealth Houston Neurosciences and Director of the Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Surgery Program and Fellowship. He had spent the first 28 years of his academic career at the University of Miami, where he had been most recently a Co-Chairman of the Department, prior to his move to Houston.

    He obtained his Medical Degree from the American University in Beirut, Lebanon in 1985, and then spent four years in England, including spending time as Registrar at the National Hospital for Neurological Diseases at Queen Square and Maida Vale in London. During his time in the UK, he won the Henry Arthur Dalziel Ferns Prize from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Scotland, "for the most outstanding candidate in the worldwide Primary FRCS examinations for the year 1987/1988 among more than 1,400 candidates”.

    Always eager to train in the US, he was delighted to be recruited by Dr Roberto Heros to fill in a vacancy in the neurosurgical residency at the University of Minnesota, from 1990 to 1994. There, he won the Peyton Society Award, “for ranking 1st in the USA on the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) written exam of 1993”. He then completed a six-month Fellowship at the University of Florida under Dr. Arthur Day in Cerebrovascular Surgery, and then a one-year Fellowship at the Barrow Neurological Institute 1994/1995 in Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Surgery under Dr. Robert Spetzler. He joined the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Miami in 1995 until his move to UTHealth Houston in 2023.

    His range of clinical and research expertise relates to all skull base and complex brain tumors, endoscopic skull base surgery, microvascular decompression and all aspects of cerebrovascular surgery including bypass surgery for complex aneurysms, Moyamoya and ischemic disease, AVMs, cavernomas and carotid endarterectomy. He also performs radiosurgery. He acts/acted as PI of the MISTA Consortium for AVMs, sub-PI on the INTUITT-NF2 study and local co-PI of the CREST-2 Trial.

    Dr. Morcos has served organized neurosurgery abundantly, nationally and internationally. He is the current AANS President (2024-25), President of the World Federation of Skull Base Societies (WFSBS) (2025-29), President of the WFSBS Congress (2025) and President of the International Meningioma Society (IMS) (2025-27). He is Past President of the North American Skull Base Society (NASBS, 2017), the Society of University Neurosurgeons (SUN, 2015) and the World Association of Lebanese Neurosurgeons (WALN, 2014-16). He is Past Chair of the Joint AANS/CNS Section on Cerebrovascular Surgery. He is an active member of multiple societies including the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons (AAcNS), the Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS), the World Academy of Neurological Surgeons (WANS) and the newly created (2024) Yaśargil Microneurosurgery Academy (YMA). He is a delegate to the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS).

    Dr. Morcos serves on several Editorial Boards, including “Journal of Neurosurgery”, “Neurosurgery”, “World Neurosurgery”, “Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base” and others. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of University Neurosurgeons (SUN), was inducted in the AOA Honor Medical Society, selected by US World and News Report as top 1% of US physicians, and has received numerous other awards from America’s Top Doctors, Marquis’ Who’s Who, Patients Choice and others.

    Dr. Morcos is passionate about microneurosurgery and education, nationally and globally. He has lectured and taught the world over, with more than 1000 invited presentations and 100 Visiting Professorships. He has authored 230 peer reviewed/chapters/other publications. He has trained 25 Cerebrovascular/Skull Base Fellows to date. On a personal level, he has been married to Fiona since 1993, and they have 3 children, Isabella, John and Christina. His hobbies include alpine skiing, cycling, swimming, traveling and amateurish maths/physics.

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

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