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FACULTY AND STAFF |
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BIOSKETCH |
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Duc H. Duong, MD, FACS - Associate Professor, III, Career Academic Series. Dr. Duong received
his BS degree in 1983 in Biochemistry at The University of California at Los. Angeles, and his MD degree in 1987 at The University of California at Davis. Dr. Duong completed his Neurosurgical Residency training at The George Washington University in 1997 and completed additional fellowship years in neuro-oncology with epilepsy surgery at the University of Washington and in Neurovascular surgery at Newcastle General Hospital UK. in 1992 and 1996 respectively. He became board eligible in 1997 and board certified (Diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery) in 1999. In 2001 he became member of The Fellow of American College of Surgeons. He holds professional memberships in the American Association of Neurological Surgery, the Congress of Neurological Surgery general transitional member, joint tumor section, Critical Care Section, and the North American Skull Base Society. Dr. Duong also the teaching faculty for the skull base surgery at these national meeting. Dr. Duong has been affiliated with the Department of Neuroscience at King/Drew Medical Center for approximately 8 years and currently serves as Chair, Co-Director of the Stroke and Epilepsy Center, and Director of the Neurotrauma program. |
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Samuel Biggers, MD, Professor, Clinical Series, Dr. Biggers received his B.A. degree from Dillard University in 1956. He matriculated to the University of Texas - Galveston where his preparation for the M.D. degree was expanded into a 5 year curriculum to include post-graduate studies in neuroanatomy and electron microscopy of the Central Nervous System. He was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society for scholarship accomplishments and Sigma XI for research interests. Graduating with honors in 1961, he completed internship at Orange County General Hospital. As an Air Force Medical Officer over the ensuing 2 years, Captain Biggers was assigned to the General Surgical Service of Dyess A.F.B., Texas. On completion of this duty, he entered neurosurgical training at Los Angeles County - University of Southern California. Subsequently entering private practice, he continued his service on the clinical faculty of LAC-USC and became board certified in 1970. He remains a Clinical Professor on the USC faculty.
He holds professional membership in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, LACMA, Drew Medical and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Societies. He is founder of the Neurosurgical Section of the National Medical Association. He has mentored and counseled students and residents aspiring to become neurological surgeons over the decades of his career. |
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Lowell Nelson, PhD MD , Associate Professor II, Career Academic Series. Dr. Nelson received his BA in physics and mathematics in 1978 from the University of North Dakota, his PhD in physics in 1973 from Ohio University, and his MD in 1975 from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his Medicine internship at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago in 1974, and his residency in Neurology at VA Wadsworth Medical Center/UCLA in 1979. He became a member of the faculty at VA Wadsworth Medical Center in 1979 and, from 1979 to 1982, he continued at UCLA as an American Epilepsy Society Lennox Post-Doctoral Fellow in membrane biochemistry, and a recipient of an NINCDS National Research Service Award. From 1982 until 1986 he continued as a faculty member in the Department of Neurology at VA WMC and as an Assistant Professor in Residence at UCLA, with the support of an NINCDS Teacher-Investigator Career Development Award. In 1986 Dr. Nelson left V A WMC/UCLA to join the faculty of the Department of Neuroscience at King-Drew Medical Center, and he has now been associated with the Department of Neuroscience for eleven years. He was responsible on his arrival at KDMC for the design and construction of the epilepsy telemetry unit (DTRU), and has served the Department as Director of the DTRU, Director of the Electroencephalography Laboratory, Director of General Neurology and Seizure clinics at Hubert H. Humphrey Comprehensive Health Center, and, since 1991, and Chief of the Division of Neurology. Dr. Nelson maintains professional memberships in the American Academy of Neurology, the American Epilepsy Society, and the Western EEG Society. |
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Frederick W. Pitts, M.D., FACS – Associate Professor, Clinical Series. Dr. Pitts received his B.S. degree in 1950 from the University of Pittsburgh and his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1954. Following internship at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania and two years of active duty in the Army, he completed his training in Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. After an additional year of residency Neuropathology at Philadelphia General Hospital, he went on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He became board certified in 1964. He was an assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania until 1967 when he joined the faculty of the University of Southern California as Associate Professor and in 1970, he became full Professor. He left academic practice in 1973 and practiced neurosurgery at the Hospital of Good Samaritan, Los Angeles until retiring in October 2005. He joined the faculty of Charles Drew University at that time. He holds professional memberships in the AMA, AANS and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons as well as other Professional Societies. Upon retirement from private practice, he has again entered an academic affiliation with Charles Drew University. |
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Behnam Farahdel, M.D ., Assistant Professor, Career Academic Series. Dr. Farahdel received his BS degree in 1991 from Brooklyn College in New York and his MD from the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center at Brooklyn in 1998. He finished his Neurology residency at Saint Vincent Hospital and Medical Center in NY 2002. He became board certified in 2005. |
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Xiao-Quan Yuan. M.D. - Assistant Professor. III. Career Academic Series. Dr. Yuan received his M.D. degree in 1980 from Shanghai Medical University. He worked as an attending physician, and gained some clinical. teaching and research experiences in Critical Care Medicine before coming to the U.S. in 1985. After conducting studies on shock, brain injury and cerebral protection in the University of Florida and Wake Forest University. He was chosen by National Research Council. National Academy of Sciences to conduct research for the U.S. Government. He led a group of U.S. Army personnel to conduct a series of studies to investigate interactions of traumatic brain injury and systemic responses to massive hemorrhage. He had numerous research papers published on this subject. He first did his internship at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. and then finished his Neurology Residency Training Program in 2000 at West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. He holds professional memberships in the American Academy of Neurology. the American Medical Association and American Physiological Society. Dr. Yuan has joined the Department of Neuroscience of Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science as an Assistant Professor and Attending Physician in Neurology since July 1,2000.
He is interested in research on brain injuries. This research includes traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries; assessment of efficacy of current cerebral protection measures; evaluation of effects of shock and cardiopulmonary resuscitation on cerebral function; and development of field measures to reduce early mortality and late morbidity in severely brain injured patients. |
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Richard C. Branan, B.Sc.,E.Ph., M.D., Ph.D. –Associate Professor, Clinical Series. Dr. Branan received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics in 1967, from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He undertook graduate school in physics and astrophysics at the University of Colorado, where he worked as a Research Physicist at The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. His research interests were in the vacuum ultraviolet spectrum and involved satellite and high altitude rocket physics. During this time, he became a systems level computer programmer. In 1971, Dr. Branan obtained his M.D. degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. While at the University of Colorado, he worked as a Research Assistant at the Webb Waring Institute, doing pulmonary function research. Dr. Branan completed his surgical internship and the initial aspect of his neurosurgical training at the University of California Hospitals, San Francisco. He completed his neurosurgery residency in 1978, at the Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He then completed a research fellowship with the Medical Research Council of Canada in 1979. During his time at McGill University, he entered graduate school and obtained his Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute of McGill University. He was board certified in Neurosurgery in 1982. Dr. Branan served in the U.S. Army as a Staff Neurosurgeon at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. and at the Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. He was honorably discharged with the rank of major. During his time at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he did research on head trauma and cerebral blood flow. He was a Visiting Investigator at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute of the Defense Nuclear Agency. He also held an appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. After leaving the military, he went into neurosurgery private practice in Denver, Colorado. He is a member of the Neuro Fellows Society of the Montreal Neurological Institute. He holds professional memberships in the American Medical Association, Southern Medical Association and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Branan joined the neurosurgery faculty at KinglDrew Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, .in July, 2002. |
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Taghi Tirgari, M.D . - Assistant Professor Ill, Career Academic Series. Dr. Tirgari received his MD degree in October 1956 from the University of Tehran, Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Tirgari finished his Internship at Staten Island Hospital, New York in 1958; Residency in Pathology at King County Hospital in 1959; General Surgery at Meriden-Walingford Hospital in Connecticut June 1960. He completed his residency in neurological surgery at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1963 and finished his chief residency in neurological surgery at Victoria General Hospital, Halifax, Canada in 1964. Dr. Tirgari practiced in neurosurgery from 1964 to 1984 in Tehran, Iran in a teaching position as Professor in The Department of Neurosurgery at Jondi-Shapoor Medical School, Firoozgar Hospital, Tehran, Iran since 1964 to 1984. Dr. Tirgari returned to the United States and has been working as a staff Physician Specialist in the Department of Neurosurgery , King/Drew Medical Center since February 1992. He is currently awaiting his appointment as Assistant Professor III. He became board eligible in 1986. |
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