Mark N. Hadley, M.D., a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been chosen as the recipient of the 2018 Congress of Neurological Surgeons Distinguished Service Award. Hadley was honored by the CNS at the organization’s 65th Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas, on Oct. 9. The award is the most prestigious award the organization can bestow on an individual.
Hadley, the Charles A. and Patsy W. Collat Endowed Professor of Neurosurgery at UAB, has been an active leader in the CNS for more than 30 years. In 2003, he served as the president and, from 1997-2000, served as its secretary. Hadley has served on the editorial board of the CNS journal, Neurosurgery, since 1999 and currently serves in an executive advisory role to the editor on the neurosurgery publishing task force as chair of the Neurosurgery Advisory Committee.
“The Congress of Neurological Surgeons, one the world’s largest neurosurgical member service organizations, with more than 8,000 members, is a leader in innovative educational programs and opportunities for neurosurgeons worldwide,” Hadley said. “True to its roots, the CNS has an equal-opportunity governance structure for all neurosurgeons, including those in training. Based on a meritocracy, the CNS offers professional development for young neurosurgeons — even those yet to be board-certified — teaching, encouraging and promoting them to leadership roles for service in our field. I have greatly enjoyed my more than 30-year membership and participation in the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and am deeply honored to receive this prestigious award.”
Hadley is an internationally recognized expert in the care and surgical treatment of patients with spinal cord tumors and spinal column pathology, including congenital anomalies, traumatic spinal cord injuries, fractures of the spinal vertebrae, degenerative spinal diseases, disk herniations, spinal stenosis, spinal reconstruction and fusion procedures of the entire spinal column. He performs an average of 300 such procedures a year.
Hadley has published more than 200 scientific manuscripts and is the recipient of federal funding for human spinal cord injury research. He is also active in medical student and resident education and has served as the Department of Neurosurgery’s residency training program director for 19 years.
He remains committed to a number of leadership organizations within the field of neurosurgery and recently completed a six-year term as a director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. This fall, Hadley was recognized as the Alden March Outstanding Surgical Alumnus Awardee from his medical school, Albany Medical College in New York.