2026 Awards & Grant Recipients
January 22 - 25, 2026 | Caesars Palace | Las Vegas, NV
Kim Burchiel, MD, FACS
John Raaf Professor and Chairman Emeritus, Department of Neurological Surgery Head, Division of Functional Neurosurgery Oregon Health & Science University Oregon |
Bio
Kim James Burchiel was born in 1950 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. After grade school education in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the family moved to Redding, California. His undergraduate education was at the University of California, Davis, majoring in Biochemistry and Genetics. He then went to medical school at the University of California, San Diego graduating in 1976. He completed his surgical internship at the UCLA/Harbor General Hospital in Torrance, California and entered neurosurgical residency at the University of Washington. There Dr. Burchiel's interest in functional neurosurgery was established with a specific interest in pain, functional neurosurgery, and epilepsy surgery. Dr. Burchiel remained on the staff of the University of Washington and Chief of Neurosurgery at the Seattle VA Medical Center. In 1988, Dr. Burchiel accepted the position of Professor and Head of the Division of Neurosurgery at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland and later in 1997 the Department of Neurological Surgery was established at OHSU. Dr. Burchiel served as the Raaf Professor and Chairman of the OHSU Department of Neurological Surgery from 1997-2015. He has now trained over 50 fellows in Functional and Stereotactic Neurosurgery. His major clinical interests are in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for movement disorders and other conditions, and the surgical treatment of pain, particularly trigeminal neuralgia. His research interests are concerned with the physiology of nociception and neuropathic pains, including trigeminal neuralgia, the neurosurgical treatment of movement disorders, epilepsy surgery, image-guided neurosurgery. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and his six published textbooks include the Surgical Management of Pain (1st and 2nd editions), Spinal Cord Injury Pain: Assessment, Mechanisms, Management, Microelectrode Recording in Movement Disorder Surgery, Handbook of Pain Surgery, and Functional Neurosurgery and Neuromodulation. He and his wife, Debra, have three children, and live in Portland, Oregon. |
Julie Pilitsis, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Neurosurgery Physician Executive, Functional Neurosurgery University of Arizona & Banner Health System Arizona |
Bio
Julie Pilitsis, MD, PhD, MBA, is Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at University of Arizona Tucson and the Physician Executive for Functional Neurosurgery for Banner Health System. Prior to this role, she served as Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs Strategic Initiatives at Florida Atlantic University where she led the FAU Health Network initiative. Dr. Pilitsis previously served as chair and professor of the neuroscience department and division chief of functional neurosurgery at Albany Medical College in New York. During her time at Albany, she completed her MBA and graduated from ELAM. She maintains an NIH sponsored research program focused on device optimization for neuromodulation with 3 active grants and has published over 250 journal articles, 5 textbooks, and numerous chapters. She served as president of the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) in 2023-24, and is current president of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN). She was previous chair of the AANS/CNS Section on WIN and on Pain. |
Shadi Dayeh, PhD
Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of California San Diego California |
Bio
Shadi A. Dayeh is Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, with affiliated roles in NanoEngineering, Bioengineering, Materials Science & Engineering and Neurological Surgery. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Physics/Electronics at the Lebanese University in Beirut, the MS degree from Southern Methodist University, and the PhD degree from UC San Diego, both in Electrical Engineering. He received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2019), ISCS Young Scientist Award (2018), NSF CAREER (2014), Jacobs School Teacher of the Year – ECE (2015), and LebNet Bireme Technologist of the Year (2021). Earlier, he was a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow and J. R. Oppenheimer Distinguished Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His group’s work spans PtNR-based, ultra-dense human brain interfaces, flexible depth electrodes, Brain-iEEG visualization, and safety limits for stimulation—culminating in an FDA IDE for a 1,024-channel intraoperative platform and >100 patient uses across three centers. He co-leads a $12.25M NIH UG3/UH3 consortium on high-channel wireless systems and serves as Neuromodulation Architect for ARPA-H Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts. |
Cameron McIntyre, PhD
Professor, Biomedical Engineering & Neurosurgery Duke University North Carolina |
Bio
Cameron McIntyre is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery at Duke University. He received his BS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in 1997 and 2001, respectively. His doctoral research studied the biophysics of neural stimulation, and he performed post-doctoral training in clinical deep brain stimulation (DBS) at Johns Hopkins University and Emory University. His independent research career started at the Cleveland Clinic in 2003. The lab moved to CWRU in 2013, and then transitioned to Duke in 2021. The special expertise of the group resides in the theoretical, experimental, and clinical application of neuromodulation and neurorecording technologies in human patients. In addition, they are well known for developing software tools that integrate advanced computational models with brain imaging data. Dr. McIntyre has lead 12 different National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants and authored ~150 peer-reviewed research papers. Those scientific results have enabled him to co-found 4 successful neurotechnology companies. |
Arti Ori, MD
Pain Management Physician & Anesthesiologist Mass General Brigham Massachusetts |
Bio
Dr. Arti Ori is a senior faculty member in the Pain Division Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School and has dedicated over fourteen years to advancing pain medicine through clinical excellence, education, and research. She completed her surgery internship, anesthesiology residency, and pain fellowship at the Brigham, where she now leads the Intrathecal Pump Program and is nationally recognized for targeted drug delivery and neuromodulation. Dr. Ori chairs the Education Committee for the Women Innovators in Pain Medicine Society, receiving its 2024 Mentorship and 2025 Education Awards, and directs national cadaver labs and surgical training workshops. She mentors fellows through NANS, WIPM, and the Medtronic Accelerate Program, fostering technical mastery and professional growth. A passionate educator, she emphasizes evidence-based learning and multidisciplinary collaboration. Dr. Ori serves as Principal Investigator on multiple clinical trials and her goal is to advance the management of cancer pain through cutting edge research and innovation. She is also active in advancing diversity and inclusion serving on the Fellowship Recruitment and Community Engagement Committees. Her vision centers on developing compassionate, innovative, and scholarly pain physicians prepared to lead the next generation of the field. |
Blake Parente, MHS, PA-C Physician Assistant Duke University Medical Center North Carolina |
Bio
Blake Parente is a Physician Assistant (PA) at Duke University Medical Center specializing in functional neurosurgery and treating high impact pain. For almost 15 years, Parente has worked on expanding pain modulation and functional ablative procedures across a variety of new neurological indications and is excited to be collaborating on multiple projects involving interdisciplinary care and spinal cord injury. Parente holds a Master of Health Sciences from the Duke University Physician Assistant Program and a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience from Smith College. They have recently completed a Certificate in Health Professions Education & Teaching Program. They have been affiliated with Duke since 2005. |
David Gallacher, MD
University of Colorado School Medicine Colorado |
Tessa Harland, MD
Albany Medical College New York |
Ahish Chitneni, DO
University of California Irvine California |
Rosalynn Conic, MD, PhD, MPH
Mayo Clinic Florida |
Matthew Chung, MD
MD Anderson Cancer Center Texas |
Saba Javed, MD
MD Anderson Cancer Center Texas |
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Ashlyn Brown, MD, MBA, MS
Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Barbara Buccilli, MD Clinical Innovations Laboratory & the Pilitsis Lab, Arizona James Mossner, MD, MS Northwestern Medicine, Illinois |
Rahil Soroushmojdehi, PhD, MS
UC Irvine, California Rebecca Takele, DO SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, New York |
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Addison Cavender, BS
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee Shravni Deshmukh, MS University of Illinois Chicago, Illinois Ghassan Makhoul, BA Vanderbilt University, Tennessee Daniel Marshall, BS Duke University, North Carolina Edgar Remotti, MD CNY Brain and Spine Neurosurgery, New York |
Kareen Shaw, DO
Navy Medical Center, California Austin Shokraeifard, DO UT Health Science Center San Antonio, Texas Dmitriy Treyster, MD, MPAS, PA-C Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Maryland Richard Uhlenhopp, MD University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas Muhammad Uzair Siddique, MBBS Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut |