Brown University and Lifespan have hired a new chair of neurosurgery. Dr. Ziya Gokaslan is an expert in cancer treatment who previously served as a vice chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University. He begins his new role July 1, 2015.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Dr. Ziya Gokaslan will become the new chair of neurosurgery in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and chief of neurosurgery at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital July 1, 21015, Lifespan and Brown announced today.

Gokaslan will come to Rhode Island after serving as a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, and orthopedic surgery, director of the Neurosurgical Spine Center, and the vice chairman of neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. His clinical expertise is in treating cancers such as spinal tumors, and he has published more than 300 peer-reviewed research papers.

“Dr. Gokaslan is a skilled surgeon, a talented educator and scientist, and he understands the strength of academic medicine,” said Dr. Jack A. Elias, dean of medicine and biological sciences at Brown. “His mentorship of medical students, residents, and fellows is well-known, and we admire his dedication to the advancement of knowledge in the neurosciences.”

Gokaslan earned his medical degree at the University of Istanbul in Turkey and completed his residency and internship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.