Sepideh Amin-Hanjani was born in Tehran, Iran, to a family with a strong inclination towards the medical profession. She grew up primarily in Crieff, Scotland, where she attended a boarding school, Morrison’s Academy, from a young age. The school motto of “ad summa tendendum” influenced her performance then, and guided her subsequent path. As her family ultimately relocated to the United States, she attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, graduating in three years with a B.S. in Zoology, summa cm laude, in 1990. Thereafter she entered Harvard Medical School as one of its youngest matriculants, and obtained an M.D. in 1994. She completed a general surgery internship and neurosurgery residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, under the direction of Dr Nicholas Zervas and Dr Robert Martuza, and had the honor of training under the late Dr Robert Ojemann.

After completing residency, she joined the faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where she remained for two years before leaving to pursue her primary interest in cerebrovascular surgery. She completed a Cerebrovascular and Skull Base fellowship with Dr Robert Spetzler at the Barrow Neurological Institute, and assumed a faculty position at the University of Illinois at Chicago, under Dr Fady Charbel, where she currently serves as Professor and Residency Program Director. She maintains an active clinical practice as the Co-Director of Neurovascular Surgery, as well as a busy research program, including a track record of NIH funding for the examination of cerebral blood flow and stroke risk.

She is past Chair of the AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section and the AANS/CNS Joint Guidelines Review Committee, and is an active participant in several national committees including serving as Chair of the Scientific Statement Oversight Committee for the American Heart Association Stroke Council. She participates in editorial review for multiple journals, and serves on the Editorial Board of Stroke, Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery.