Dr. E. Antonio (‘Nino”) Chiocca was born in the city of Padova in northeastern Italy. In 1979, he came to the USA where he attended college at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he graduated with a BS in 1982. His interest in biomedical research was solidified by an undergraduate research project that he attended at MD Anderson Hospital in the summer of 1981. He entered the MD/PhD program offered by the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. In 2004, he became the first Chairman of the newly instituted Department of Neurological Surgery at the Ohio State University Medical Center, where he held the Dardinger Family Endowed Chair in Oncological Neurosurgery. In 2012, he became the Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the Harvey W. Cushing Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, funded by the Daniel E. Ponton fund.

Dr. Chiocca is a clinician-scientist whose research is focused on developing novel genetic therapies for malignant brain tumors. He is the current Secretary of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the President of the Society of Neurosurgeons, among other board positions.