Dr. Stephen Haines is the Lyle A. French Chair and Head of the Department of Neurosurgery. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Vermont and trained in Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to his appointment at Minnesota he was Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery and a founding Co-Director of the Neuroscience Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina. He was board certified in Neurological Surgery in 1984.

Dr. Haines’ primary clinical interests lie in surgery of the skull base, cranial nerves and posterior fossa, pediatric neurosurgery and brain tumors. He has extensive experience in the surgery of acoustic neuroma, trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm, craniofacial disorders, complex hydrocephalus, pediatric and adult myelodysplasia. He is on the Medical Advisory Board of the Hemifacial Spasm Associations and a past member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association.

Dr. Haines’ primary research interest focuses on the application of advanced clinical research techniques to neurosurgery and the development of resources for the evidence-based practice of neurosurgery. He is a past member of the Editorial Board of the Cochrane Stroke Group and has led his departments’ involvement in numerous clinical trials. He has published and lectured extensively on these subjects.