L. Dade Lunsford Professor
Executive Vice Chair
Director, Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery
Co-Director, UPMC Brain Tumor Center, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
Director, Brain Tumor Nanotechnology Laboratory

Costas G. Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon who has devoted his entire career to the treatment of brain tumor patients. He completed his neurosurgical residency and graduate PhD training at the University of Pittsburgh with additional neurosurgical oncology training at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Hadjipanayis is executive vice chair for the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery and has succeeded L. Dade Lunsford, MD—his mentor—as director of the UPMC Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery. Dr. Hadjipanayis also directs the Brain Tumor Nanotechnology Laboratory in the Hillman Cancer Center and has been the principal investigator of multiple clinical trials and university, foundation, and NIH-funded grants focused on brain tumors.

He was recently recruited back to the University of Pittsburgh from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City where he served as the chair of neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Union Square/Beth Israel and the director of neurosurgical oncology for the Mount Sinai Health System.

Dr. Hadjipanayis has focused much of his career on innovation, translational research, and intraoperative technology development. In 2011, Dr. Hadjipanayis was the first to use 5-ALA (Gleolan) and perform fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) in the United States and helped lead the FDA approval of Gleolan for glioma surgery in June 2017. He has also led the development of a voice-controlled robotic-assisted exoscope for neurosurgery.

He is an elected member of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons and the Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS). Dr. Hadjipanayis has been a tireless brain tumor advocate serving on the nonprofit boards of the Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation (SBTF) and StacheStrong.