Raj Narayan, MD, arguably one of the best known neurosurgeons in the country, was recruited in 2009 to head the Department of Neurosurgery and the Harvey Cushing Institutes of Neurosciences at the Hofstra North-Shore LIJ School of Medicine. This is the third department of neurosurgery that Narayan has been charged with building, having previously served as Chair at Temple University in Philadelphia (1995- 2002) and at the University of Cincinnati (2002-2009).
Dr. Narayan was born in Hyderabad in South India, the son of an Indian Army officer. As a child he traveled with his family through many army postings in North India as well as in Egypt where his father served as a diplomat. He completed high school from the Hyderabad Public School and was selected into the Christian Medical College in Vellore, from where he graduated in 1975 as one of the top students in his class. He completed his neurosurgery residency at the Medical College of Virginia in 1982 and did a 3-year fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.
From 1985 to 1995 Dr. Narayan was on the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and rapidly climbed the academic ladder to become a tenured full professor. At the age of 42 he was appointed as Chair of Neurosurgery at Temple University – one of the youngest neurosurgery Chairs of a residency program, and one of the first Indians to achieve this recognition. In 2002, in part due to his success in rebuilding the department at Temple, he was recruited to head the bigger department at the University of Cincinnati. He did an equally remarkable job over the next seven years in Cincinnati and almost doubled the scope of the program. He now has taken on his next challenge – to develop one of the largest and most successful neurosurgical departments in the country within the North Shore-LIJ Health System.
Raj has published extensively with over 100 peer-reviewed papers, 50 book chapters and the major textbook on head and spinal injury to his credit. He has served as visiting professor at over 70 major departments all over the world and has established an international reputation as a neurosurgeon, scholar, teacher and researcher. He was recently awarded a $5 million grant from the Department of Defense for his work relating to brain monitoring.
Raj credits his success to his parents for their support and guidance, and to his wife of 31 years, Tina Narayan, MD, a pediatric neurologist who he first met in medical school and who has stubbornly stayed with him through many years of long hours at work, nights on call and missed dinners. He would like to thank his three children Tara, Neil and Anjali for being such great kids and for his many friends that have made life so much fun.