Dr. Burchiel is president-elect of the Society of Neurological Surgeons

Kim Burchiel, MD, FACS, has been elected president-elect of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the oldest neurosurgical professional organization in the world.

Dr. Burchiel was elected to the position at the recent 2012 annual meeting of the society at Emory University in Atlanta.

Dr. Burchiel, who is Raaf professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at OHSU, will preside over the 2014 meeting of the society, to be help at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

The primary mission of the Society of Neurological Surgery is the design and implementation of neurosurgical residency and fellowship education in North America.

Dr. Burchiel has been a pioneer in the use of deep brain stimulation surgery to treat tremors, including in patients with Parkinson's disease. He is also an expert on the physiology of pain, has published in more than 200 peer-reviewed journals and has written 60 book chapters and four books.

He became professor and head of the division of neurosurgery at OHSU in 1988. The division became the Department of Neurological Surgery in 1997. Prior to coming to OHSU, Burchiel was an assistant professor at the University of Washington and chief of neurosurgery at the Seattle VA Medical Center.