Chief, Division of Neurosurgery | Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Department of Neurosurgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Hear from Dr. Alterman during General Scientific Session III on Tuesday, November 3.
Dr. Alterman is Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery within the Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Dr. Alterman was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and his Medical Doctorate with distinction (AOA) from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Following a general surgery internship at Washington University in St. Louis, he completed his Neurosurgery Residency training at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. He was the first fellow in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at New York University (1995) after which he joined the NYU Neurosurgery Faculty. In 1998 he moved to New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center where he established the busiest deep brain stimulation program in the New York Tri-State region. In 2002 he earned his M.B.A. with Honors from Columbia Business School. In 2003, he served at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2008.
In 2004, Dr. Alterman moved to the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine as Director of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery. Under his leadership, functional neurosurgery at Mount Sinai became internationally recognized for its clinical, academic, and educational programs and Dr. Alterman rose to the rank of Professor.
Dr. Alterman became Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at BIDMC in 2011. Under his leadership, BIDMC Neurosurgery has tripled its faculty and grown its clinical volume >50%. Centers of excellence have been established in Functional neurosurgery, Neuro-oncology, and Vascular/Endovascular Neurosurgery. As a result, BIDMC, in collaboration with Boston Medical Center, was awarded a new Neurosurgery Residency Program in 2016 and the program was approved for expansion to 2 residents per year in 2025. In addition, for the first time in its history, BIDMC was ranked among the top 50 Neurology/Neurosurgery programs in US News and World report.
Dr. Alterman has received numerous honors throughout his career, including the Young Neurosurgeon Award from the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and the President’s Award from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation. He is a founding member of the Neurosurgery Department at Harvard Medical School. He served as Secretary/Treasurer of the ASSFN and a member of the Executive Committee of the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery. He is an Assistant Editor of Neurosurgery and a section editor for Youman’s Textbook of Neurosurgery.
Dr. Alterman is married to Jacqueline Gibbs-Alterman and has two children: Raphael (33), who resides in Dallas, and Chloe (16) who attends the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.