Elected: 2012

Jeffery A. Ojemann was born in Seattle, WA on March 11, 1968. His father, George Ojemann, and his uncle, the late Robert Ojemann, were both active members of the Society. His mother, Linda Moretti-Ojemann, was an epileptologist at the University of Washington Regional Epilepsy Center, where his parents met.

Dr. Ojemann received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton in Physics and a MD and MA from Washington University School of Medicine, in St Louis, where he spent an additional year in the laboratories of Drs. Marcus Raichle and Steve Petersen. He remained at Washington University for his residency, pediatric neurosurgery fellowship, and on the faculty as Assistant Professor. There, under the mentorship of Ralph Dacey and T.S. Park, he continued his laboratory work in functional MRI of memory and language and established his clinical work in pediatric neurosurgery and epilepsy surgery across both pediatric and adult population. He was awarded a mentored patient-oriented research award (K23) from NINDS.

He then returned home to Seattle in 2003, as Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington. There, he has continued his clinical and research work along the same lines. He assumed the Richard G. Ellenbogen Chair in Pediatric Neurological Surgery in 2004 and was promoted to Professor of Neurological Surgery and Radiology (adjunct) in 2009. His collaborations with the School of Engineering expanded and he has been co-PI on several NSF grants and PI on a RO1 studying human electrocorticography as a target for brain-computer interface. He became Division Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Seattle Children’s Hospital in 2009. He has published extensively in the fields of neurosurgery, imaging, and human electrophysiology. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Neurosurgery-Pediatrics and Neurosurgery. He was scientific chair of the American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery from 2010-12 and is on the Pediatric Committee of the American Epilepsy Society.

His educational focus is on the neurosurgery residency research experience. He has been primary laboratory mentor for several residents and fellows, as well as graduate students, summer students, and science teacher rotators. He has been mentor for K-series junior faculty awardees across a range of neuroscience fields. He is an active faculty member in the NSF-Engineering Research Center, the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering. He is PI on an R25 training grant for neurosurgery residents that matches neurosurgery and engineering/neuroscience mentors for the resident experience.

He married Karen Selboe (bachelor’s degrees in both Forestry and, later, Nursing) in 1996. They live in Seattle with their 3 sons and enjoy music, Sounders season tickets, backyard forestry, hiking, organic coffee, social justice, and travel. He was winless as a rec-league soccer coach and taught Sunday school for middle schoolers at the local catholic church.