The UAB Department of Neurosurgery became the 24th academic department in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine on Oct. 1, 2013, after the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System approved the measure.
 
Before elevation to a departmental status, the Department of Neurosurgery was initially founded in 1954 by James Garber Galbraith, M.D., as the UAB Division of Neurosurgery within the Department of Surgery.
 
James M. Markert, M.D., MPH, served as the director of the Division of Neurosurgery from 2006 until 2013 when he became the inaugural James Garber Galbraith Endowed Chair of the UAB Department of Neurosurgery. Markert was recruited to UAB in 1995 by Richard B. Morawetz, M.D., the fourth division director of neurosurgery. 
 
When Markert learned of his appointment to department chair, he said his goals for the department were straightforward. “We will continue to provide world-class neurosurgical care to the citizens of Alabama and the surrounding region. We will also seek to attract new energetic and talented faculty to our already stellar group in order to explore and produce new avenues of treatment; expand our research efforts so that the cutting-edge work currently underway in the brain tumor, clinical outcomes and surgical anatomy arenas can be expanded; and create new fruitful collaborations with our colleagues in other clinical and basic science departments here at UAB.”
 
In 2013, UAB’s neurosurgery program, which was made up of 19 faculty members and 21 residents, was the second-largest program in the country to still be structured as a division.
 
Under Markert’s leadership, the department now performs more than 4,000 procedures annually and serves UAB Hospital, Children's of Alabama, Medical West, The Kirklin Clinic, UAB Highlands and the Birmingham Veteran's Administration Hospital.

To learn more about the UAB Department of Neurosurgery's history and join the 10-year-anniversary celebration, visit the dedicated webpage.