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Cerebrovascular surgeon Robert H. Rosenwasser, M.D., F.A.C.S, FAHA, Professor and Chairman of Neurological Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, was recently honored for playing a major role in the training, education and direction of military neurosurgeons.

Dr. Rosenwasser received the Hugo Rizzoli Lecturer award November 15, 2007 from Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Department of Neurosurgery in Washington, D.C.

“Dr. Rosenwasser has played a pivotal role in shaping how the military approaches neurovascular disease not only through training me but through the continued effort with our military residents,” said U.S. Marine Colonel Rocco Armonda, M.D., F.A.C.S ., an attending neurosurgeon at Walter Reed. “This award recognizes not only his significant academic, clinical and research contributions, but how training those of us who go forth into harms way propagates his legacy to the dark corners of the earth.”  

Dr. Armonda was the first individual to complete endovascular fellowship training under Dr. Rosenwasser, in June 1999.

Dr. Rosenwasser, who is also immediate past president of the Society of University Neurosurgeons, is world renowned for his surgical expertise in the prevention and  treatment of life-threatening neurovascular diseases. Dr. Rosenwasser does more such operations annually than any other surgeon in the country.

He was vice-chair for clinical services in the Department of Neurosurgery at Jefferson Medical College from 1994 - 1995. Since 1995 he has been the program director for the endovascular fellowship.

Dr. Rosenwasser helped pioneer the use of a soft, flexible stent made of a non-metallic polymer – the first of its kind in the world to be used for brain aneurysms that could not be readily treated surgically. The type of stent, called an intracranial stent, was developed specifically for blood vessels in the brain and for cerebral aneurysms.

Prior to coming to Jefferson in 1994, Dr. Rosenwasser was assistant, then associate professor of neurosurgery at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. From 1985 to 1994, he was director of the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, chief of the Section of Cerebrovascular Surgery and deputy director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Temple University Hospital. He was also residency program director and co-director of the trauma program.  In 1992, he became chief of the Section of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery there.

Dr. Rosenwasser is a member of a number of neurosurgery organizations, including the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, the American Society of Therapeutic and Interventional Neuroradiology, the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Neurologic Critical Care.  He is chairman of the Cerebrovascular Surgery Section, American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

He is author or co-author of three textbooks on vascular disease of the central nervous system and more than 200 publications or abstracts and has lectured widely.

Dr. Rosenwasser received a bachelor of science degree from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La., in 1975 and a doctor of medicine degree from Louisiana State University in 1979. He completed his neurosurgical residency at Temple University Hospital in 1985. He completed fellowships in neurovascular surgery at the University of Western Ontario, in 1984, and in interventional neuroradiology at New York University in 1993.