Members

DR. PETER BLACK was born in Canada and educated at Harvard College and McGill Medical School. His neurosurgery residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital under Nicholas Zervas was interrupted by service in the US Navy. In the attending physician’s office of the US Capitol, he completed work that led to a PhD in philosophy from Georgetown University.

After completing residency, he joined the staff of the MGH. Seven years later, he was appointed Neurosurgeon-in-Chief at Brigham and Women’s and Children’s Hospitals and Franc D. Ingraham Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. He spent the next twenty-five years developing the traditions of Harvey Cushing and Franc Ingraham at these institutions. Teaching programs trained students and residents from all parts of the United States as well as an international fellowship program which created leaders in Morocco, China, Japan, Australia,

Belgium, Germany, Italy, England, Finland, Colombia, Canada, Greece, Turkey, and Indonesia. His own work in mage-guided surgery and brain tumors helped create the world’s first intraoperative MRI, a busy clinical brain tumor center, and an active molecular neuro-oncology research laboratory. Balancing the complex world of the Brigham, Children’s, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School, he is particularly grateful to Medical Exchange Club members David Nathan, John Potts, Nicholas Zervas, and William Sweet for their advice and support.

Dr. Black has served as President of the Society of University Neurosurgeons, Chairman of the Joint Section on Tumors, President of the International Meningioma Society, and President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies. He chaired the editorial board of Neurosurgery from 1994-2008 and served on the editorial board of many other journals. He published 500 peer- reviewed papers and 159 book chapters. These involve brain tumors; pediatric epilepsy surgery; brain imaging; normal pressure hydrocephalus; medical ethics; and global neurosurgery. He has delivered more than six hundred lectures around the world. His eighteen books include Cancer of the Nervous System with Jay Loeffler; Operative Neurosurgery with Andrew Kaye; Meningiomas; A Comprehensive Text with Necmettin Pamir and Rudolf Fahlbusch; and Core Techniques in Operative Neurosurgery with Rahul Jandial and Paul McCormick. Most recently he has turned to medical fiction, with Seizure and Death by Denial available on Amazon.

Dr. Black has an Honorary degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Honorary Professorships form the Burdenko Institute in Moscow; Sun Yat Sen University in China; and the International Neuroscience Institute in Hanover and Shanghai.. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and Royal Society of Medicine and an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto in solo piano performance. Awards include Honored Guest of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons; Pioneer Award of the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation; ROFEH International Humanitarian Award; Bucy Award; Distinguished Service and Charles Wilson Awards, AANS/CNS Section on Tumors; Partners in Excellence Award; Patient’s Choice Award; and Medals of Honor from the Mexican Society of Neurological Surgeons, Bahcesehir University, and Norwegian Association of Neurological Surgeons. He has been consistently listed in Best Doctors in America, Top Doctors, Who’s Who in the World, Leading Physicians of the World, and Patient Preferred Neurosurgeons. He is a member or honorary member of fifty American and international neurosurgical organizations.

Dr. Black is presently Franc D. Ingraham Professor of Neurosurgery Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. Fully retired and immensely grateful to his mentors and colleagues, he enjoys time with his five children and six grandchildren, travels extensively, loves classical music, and writes medical thrillers.