P. David Adelson, MD

P. David Adelson, MD, FAAP, FACS, FAANS is the Director of Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, Diane and Bruce Halle Endowed Chair for Pediatric Neurosciences and Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Receiving his undergraduate and medical degrees from Columbia University, he completed his neurosurgical residency at UCLA in 1993 under Donald P. Becker. He then completed his pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Children's Hospital of Boston and Harvard Medical School under the guidance of R. Michael Scott and Peter McL. Black, finishing in 1994. He then joined the faculty at University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Neurosurgery with Peter Janetta and L. Dade Lunsford. He moved quickly up through the ranks from Assistant Professor to Full Professor (with Tenure) in 2003. In 2007, he was awarded the A. Leland Albright Endowed Chair as Professor of Neurosurgery/Pediatric Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Adelson was then recruited to Phoenix Children's Hospital in 2009 to begin what was then known as the Children's Neuroscience Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital and tasked with building the most comprehensive state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary neuroscience institute for children in the Southwest. Due to its rapid growth and the eventual alliance with St. Joseph's Hospital/ Dignity Health in 2011, he assumed the leadership of the reorganized Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital that has since become one of the top pediatric neuroscience programs in the country under his guidance. Dr. Adelson is presently, the Director of Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, the Diane and Bruce Halle Endowed Chair for Children's Neurosciences, Chief, Pediatric Neurosurgery, Professor of Child Health/ Neurosurgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, Professor of Neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic, and Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University in the School of Biological Systems Engineering.

Dr. Adelson is a globally recognized expert in the area of pediatric brain, spine/ spinal cord, and peripheral nerve injury, in particular acute clinical management of traumatically brain injured children as well as regenerative and restorative neuroscience. His clinical specialties additionally include the diagnosis and surgical management of pediatric neurological diseases and disorders including epilepsy, brachial plexus and peripheral nerve, neurovascular, Chiari malformations and syringomyelia and brain tumors. He continues to participate in an active basic science laboratory in translational neurotrauma with a focus on neuroplasticity along with a collaboration at Arizona State University in neural machine interface. He is active in clinical research having begun the NIH Funded Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Consortium through both Phase II and Phase III clinical trials on hypothermia following severe traumatic brain injury and more recently expanded his research focus into the areas of mechanisms of epilepsy, neural recovery, neurocritical care and restorative/functional neuroscience.

He is the recipient of multiple awards, including Best Doctors in America (Top 1%) through multiple years, Surgeon of the Year 2011 (Phoenix), and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Clinical Investigation Award. In 2009, he served as President for the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. In 2016, he was the first pediatric neurosurgeon to be awarded the highly coveted Herbert Olivecrona Award, considered by some to be the Nobel Prize of Neurosurgery", by the Department of Clinical Neuroscience/Neurosurgery at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Adelson was chosen for this honor due to his vast clinical and research contributions to the field of pediatric neurosurgery and significant work in pediatric neuroscience research. He was elected to the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons in 2011, as an Honorary Member of El Sociedad Espa ola de Neurocirugia (the Spanish Neurosurgical Society) in 2017 and as Coordinator of Committee Activity for the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) in 2017. As a leading institution, Barrow at Phoenix Children's has also become a place where neurosurgeons from around the world come to learn about Pediatric Neurosurgery and is currently a Collaborative Center for Pediatric Neurosurgery with the WFNS. Dr. Adelson's research has resulted in his authoring more than 210 peer-reviewed journal articles and 40 book chapters. He also has edited 8 books including the well-regarded, Principles and Practice of Pediatric Neurosurgery, the authoritative textbook in the field of pediatric neurosurgery, now in its 3rd Edition.

Married for over 25 years to Barbara Jean Adelson, he also has 5 children, Casey (Sam Brown), Brittany, David, Samuel, and Richard. He enjoys traveling, reading, golf, and hiking. He is still trying to learn Spanish.