Ziya L. Gokaslan, MD, FAANS, FACS, is the Julius Stoll, MD Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He serves as the Neurosurgeon-in-Chief at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. Dr. Gokaslan is also the Clinical Director of the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute. Furthermore, he is the Director of the Comprehensive Spine Center at Rhode Island Hospital and the Director of the Complex Spinal Surgery Fellowship at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Dr. Gokaslan earned his medical degree from the University of Istanbul in Turkey. He completed an internship in general surgery, a fellowship in neurotraumatology, a residency in neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and a fellowship in clinical spinal surgery at New York University Medical Center. He then returned to Houston and joined the faculty at UT MD Anderson Cancer where he later established the Spinal Oncology Program and became its first Director and Deputy Chair in the Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Gokaslan was then recruited to Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins as Donlin M. Long Professor, Professor of Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic Surgery and Oncology, Vice - Chair and the Director of Spinal Surgery Program where he served on the faculty for 13 years and established one of the most respected academic spine programs before joining The Warren Alpert School of Brown University and Lifespan.

He is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards and an active member of many professional societies. His CV contains more than 450 peer reviewed publications, four books and numerous book chapters. His practice focuses on complex spinal reconstruction and radical surgical treatment of both primary and metastatic spinal tumors, sacral neoplasms, and spinal cord tumors, and he is regarded as one of World's foremost experts in this area.

Dr. Asaad graduated from Amherst College in 1993 with a B.A. in Neuroscience and English.  He earned his PhD in Systems Neuroscience from M.I.T. in 2001, and his MD from Yale University in 2003.  He undertook residency training in neurosurgery at the Massachusetts Hospital from 2003-2010 and joined the Brown University faculty upon completion.  

He is currently Professor of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience at Brown University, the Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, the Director of Functional and Epilepsy Neurosurgery, Director of the CAST-accredited Functional and Epilepsy Neurosurgery Fellowship Program, Associate Director of the Neurosurgery Residency Training Program, and Vice Chair for Research.  His lab studies the neural circuit basis of cognitive, affective and memory function and the modulation of these circuits in humans and nonhuman primates.  He has received continuous NIH funding since 2012, along with other funding including from the Doris Duke Foundation.