Neal F. Kassell, M.D. is a Distinguished Professor, Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. Before moving to Charlottesville in 1984, Dr. Kassell was on the faculty at the University of Iowa for seven years. He received both his undergraduate and medical education at the University of Pennsylvania, and was granted an M.D. in 1972. After internship and two years of neurology and neurosurgery residency in Philadelphia, Dr. Kassell completed his neurosurgical training with Dr. Charles Drake at the University of Western Ontario in 1977.

Dr. Kassell is a member of numerous medical societies in the United States and abroad. He has served on many standing and ad hoc committees of the National Institutes of Health and in an editorial capacity for a variety of academic journals, and currently is a member of the editorial boards of Neurosurgery and Stroke. In addition to the UVA Neurosurgery residents, Dr. Kassell has trained more than fifty research fellows from eleven countries. Dr. Kassell has been a recipient of the McKenzie Memorial Award of the Canadian Neurosurgical Society, the Grass Award of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, and the first Van Wagenen lectureship of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

He has an active clinical practice specializing in patients with cerebral vascular disease, including aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations, and benign basal tumors. His research interests focus on intracranial aneurysms, as well as computing and information technology, and have resulted in more than 450 publications, supported by over $30 million in grants and contracts from NIH and industry.

Dr. Kassell was a founder of Interax, Inc., the Virginia Neurological Institute, Multimedia Medical Systems, Inc., the Neuroclinical Trials Center, the NeuroVenture Fund, and MedSpecialists.net. He has served on a number of corporate and not-for-profit boards, and is currently a director of the Virginia National Bank and the La Gesse Foundation.