Establishment of the Joseph C. Maroon Professorship in Neuroscience Innovation at Indiana University

On October 9, 2024, Dr. Joseph Maroon was honored by the establishment of the Joseph C. Maroon Professorship in Neuroscience Innovation at Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN. He was recognized for his many contributions to neuroscience and sports medicine, neuro- oncology and neuro traumatology.

In attendance were Dr. Andres Lozano, Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto and Dr. Helen Mayberg, Director of the Center for advanced Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Mt. Sinal Hospital, NYC. Both are major contributors to the field of neuroscience and neuropsychiatry. Dr. Lozano is the most referenced neurosurgeon in the world for his many publications on deep brain stimulation for the treatment of movement disorders, depression and more recently Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Kevin Otto, Dane Miller Head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, was also in attendance as well as others interested in the cross disciplinary approach to neuroscience innovation. Dr. Mitesh Shah, professor and chairman of neurosurgery, announced the professorship and detailed the remarkable growth in neuroscience at IU. As a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award as both an IU undergraduate and recently of the Medical School, this event was a capstone for Dr. Maroon for a career for “giving back”.

“As a medical student and resident in neurosurgery at Indiana University, I learned never to be satisfied with the status quo, to always seek constant improvement in the art and science of medicine — and in my life,” Maroon said. “The goal of the Professorship in Innovation is to stimulate in perpetuity curiosity, inquisitiveness, creativity, and to provide the means through technology to prevent or alleviate patient pain and suffering — without, at the same time, hardening the human heart by which we live. There is no better place I could imagine this being done than at the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery and under the leadership of Dr. Mitesh Shah.”