Biography
Dr. John Boockvar is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He received a B.A. and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Boockvar received an M.D. from SUNY Brooklyn-Downstate Medical Center where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with Distinction in Research and was medical school class valedictorian. Dr. Boockvar served as President of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He did his surgical internship and neurosurgical residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He directed the University of Pennsylvania endoscopic pituitary and skull base laboratory and completed fellowship training in neurooncology and complex spine surgery.
Dr. Boockvar's surgical focus is in benign and malignant brain tumors, skull base and endoscopic pituitary surgery, minimally invasive spine surgery and complex spinal surgery. Dr. Boockvar performs minimally invasive brain and spinal surgery. Dr. Boockvar was recently featured on ABC World News Tonight for his work on minimally invasive approaches to brain and spinal surgery.
Dr. Boockvar is Co-Director of the Brain and Spinal Tumor Program at Weill Cornell. He directs the Laboratory for Brain Tumor and Stem Cell Research. His laboratory interests have focused on neural stem cells to investigate brain tumor formation and stem cell survival after intracerebral transplantation. Towards this effort, he has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NCI and NINDS) and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Boockvar was awarded the AANS/CNS Joint Section of Neurotrauma and Critical Care's Young Investigator Award, a National Research Service Award from the NIH and the 2004 Anspach Research Award in cerebral ischemia. Last year, Dr. Boockvar was awarded The Charles Elsberg Fellowship from The New York Academy of Medicine and the American Brain Tumor Association Research Fellowship for his work on human neural stem cells. Dr. Boockvar was awarded the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Young Investigator's Award for his research on brain tumors. This year, Dr. Boockvar was awarded the Starr Foundation Award as well as a 5 year research award from the National Cancer Institute for his work on brain tumor stem cells. Dr. Boockvar is the principal investigator of a novel clinical trial using interventional neuroradiology techniques to delivery chemotherapy to malignant brain tumors.
Dr. Boockvar is a scientific reviewer for the journals Neurosurgery, Brain Research, and Human Gene Therapy and is an editorial board member for the journal Neurosurgery, and Recent Patents on Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery. Dr. Boockvar was recently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy.
If you would like to make an appointment with Dr. Boockvar, please call 212-746-1996.
Administrative Assistant to Dr. Boockvar: Yair Bitton
Clinical Practice Coordinators for Dr. Boockvar: Regina Foskey
Nurse Practioner for Dr. Boockvar: Sharese Fralin
Surgical Coordinator for Dr. Boockvar: Nya King
