2006 Martin Weiss, MD

Professor of Neurosurgery, U.S.C.
Lecture: A Historical Walk through Pituitary Surgery

The Cloward Medal was established in Honor of Ralph Bingham Cloward (1908-2000) caring physician, master neurosurgeon, passionate teacher, creative genius … to recognize in others his traits and capacity for epochal innovation and pioneering application.

This year’s recipient exemplifies the qualities of Dr. Cloward and we are fortunate that he is also a member of the Western.

Martin H. Weiss was born February 2, 1939 in Newark, New Jersey where he attended public schools and was Valedictorian of his senior class. He received an AB, magna cum laude, 1960, from Dartmouth where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa during his junior year. He went on to graduate from Cornell University Medical College in 1963, where Dr. Bronson Ray firmly cemented his interest in Neurosurgery. And he completed his neurosurgical training at University Hospitals in Cleveland and completed a fellowship at the NIH studying CSF physiology.

He was the long time chairman of Neurological surgery at the USC Keck School of Medicine, where upon his retirement he was honored by naming the chair of neurological surgery after him.

Dr. Weiss was very active in various neurosurgical organizations: he served as vice president of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, and also vice president of the Congress of neurological surgeons. He served on the board of directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and also as secretary of that group. He served on the American Board of the Neurological Surgery and was its chairman in 1988-1989. He served as a member of the Residency Review Committee for Neurological Surgery and as its chairman in 1993-1995.

He served as Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Neurosurgery (1978-1981) and was a member of the Original Editorial Board of Neurosurgery; he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery since 1987 (Chairman, 1995-1996). He served as President of the AANS from 1999-2000 and was awarded the Cushing Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the AANS in 2005.

Marty has a strong interest in a variety of neurological and neurosurgical problems. He will be sharing with us his amazing experience with pituitary surgery. He is very widely published, and has overseen the training of 66 neurosurgeons.

Marty has many passions. Teaching neurosurgery residents must be at the top of the list. Teaching ethical behavior to neurosurgical residents has been also very important to him. And his enthusiasm is absolutely contagious!

Marty has been married to Debby since August, 1961. They have three children. Marty and Debby enjoy fly fishing at their Montana cabin.