Richard G. Ellenbogen
2006, Chicago
Richard G. Ellenbogen is Professor and Chairman of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He holds the Theodore S. Roberts Endowed Chair in Neurological Surgery, is the Chief of Neurological Surgery at Harborview Medical Center, and Chief of Pediatric Neurological Surgery at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He is currently the President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Rich has enjoyed nearly every job on the Scientific Committee or Annual Meeting Committee for the CNS, since 1989. Dr. Ellenbogen was born and raised in New York, where he attended public school. He received his college degree in biochemistry at Brown University in 1980 and his medical degree from Brown in 1983. After completing a residency in 1989 at Children’s Hospital, Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Ellenbogen became a staff Neurosurgeon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He was deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm as Commander of the 252nd Medical Detachment with the XVIII Airborne Corp. He was awarded a Bronze Star during that deployment. After he returned to Walter Reed, he became the Neurosurgical Director of the DOD/VA Head Injury Project. Subsequently, he became the Chief of Neurosurgery and Residency Program Director at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and Chairman of the National Capital Area Neurosurgery Residency Consortium, prior to joining the UW Department of Neurological Surgery in November of 1997. Dr. Ellenbogen’s clinical practice focuses on Pediatric and Adult Brain Tumors, Craniofacial/Congenital Anomalies, Trauma, and Neuro-endoscopy. Dr. Ellenbogen's current extramural funded research (NIH and ACS) is in the field of hindbrain abnormalities/CSF physiology, and Brain Tumors. He is using MR to study the anatomic and physiological (CSF) properties of patients with Chiari malformations. In addition, his UW Nanotechnology research group (MINDD) is studying techniques to improve molecular imaging of brain tumors in situ, and in the operating room. Rich and Sandy Ellenbogen have been together for 23 years, and married for 20 years. Sandy, who was raised in South Dakota, is an ICU nurse and works at the University of Washington Medical Center. They have 3 children: Rachel (16) who goes to high school and rows for the Pocock Crew Team in Seattle, Paul (15) who is a self-acclaimed computer addict and fraconphile who loves fencing, and the high spirited Zach (13) who plays every sport imaginable from football to baseball. Rich’s hobbies include fly fishing, hunting and cooking. The Ellenbogens enjoy swimming and skiing together, watching movies and traveling as a family.