Neal F. Kassell, MD is the founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
He was a Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia from 1984 until 2016 and was the co-chairman of the department until 2006. 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
completed his MD 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 has served on many committees of the National Institutes of Health and in an editorial capacity for a variety of academic journals. He has contributed more than 500 publications and book chapters to medical literature. Dr. Kassell is a
member of numerous medical societies in the United States and abroad. In April 2016, Dr. Kassell was appointed by Vice President Joe Biden to the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel. He served as a member of the Global Future Council on Neurotechnologies and Brain Science for the World Economic Forum from 2016 - 2018.
He has served on a number of public and private sector boards, including Eclypsis Corporation, INC Research, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Virginia National Bank, INSIGHTEC, Inc., The Lagesse Foundation, and Expedition Trust Company. He is a shareholder of INSIGHTEC, Inc.
