Alvina and Willis Murphy Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery
Boockvar, John
(212) 746-1996 (212) 746-8947
Dr. John Boockvar is currently the Alvina and Willis Murphy Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He received a B.A. and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Boockvar received an M.D. from SUNY Brooklyn-Downstate Medical Center where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with Distinction in Research and was medical school class valedictorian. Dr. Boockvar served as President of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He did his surgical internship and neurosurgical residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He directed the University of Pennsylvania endoscopic pituitary and skull base laboratory and completed a dedicated complex spine surgery fellowship.
Dr. Boockvar's surgical focus is in benign and malignant brain tumors, skull base and endoscopic pituitary surgery, minimally invasive spine surgery and complex spinal surgery. Dr. Boockvar performs minimally invasive brain and spinal surgery. Dr. Boockvar was recently featured on ABC World News Tonight for his work on minimally invasive approaches to brain and spinal surgery.
Dr. Boockvar directs the Neurosurgical Laboratory for Translational Stem Cell and Brain Tumor Research. His laboratory interests have focused on neural stem cells to investigate brain tumor formation and stem cell survival after intracerebral transplantation. Towards this effort, he has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Boockvar was awarded the AANS/CNS Joint Section of Neurotrauma and Critical Care's Young Investigator Award, a National Research Service Award from the NIH and the 2004 Anspach Research Award in cerebral ischemia. Last year, Dr. Boockvar was awarded The Charles Elsberg Fellowship from The New York Academy of Medicine and the American Brain Tumor Association Research Fellowship for his work on human neural stem cells. Dr. Boockvar was awarded the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Young Investigator's Award for his research on brain tumors. This year, Dr. Boockvar was awarded the Starr Foundation Award for his research into brain tumor stem cells.
Dr. Boockvar is a scientific reviewer for the journals Neurosurgery, Brain Research, and Human Gene Therapy and is an editorial board member for the journal Recent Patents on Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery. Dr. Boockvar was recently selected to be Editor-in-Chief of the journal Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy.
If you would like to make an appointment with Dr. Boockvar, please call 212-746-1996.
For more information about our Brain Tumor Center, please visit us at www.cornellneurosurgery.org/braintumor.
For more information on Brain Tumors, please visit the following sites:
(212) 746-1996 
(212) 746-8947
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