Dr. John Rolston is a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, recognized internationally for his contributions to epilepsy surgery and movement disorder surgery. Before moving to Brigham & Women’s, he served as the Director of Epilepsy Surgery and the Director of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at the University of Utah from 2017 to 2022.
Dr. Rolston received his Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, where he won the Russell Mills Award for Excellence in Computer Science. For his PhD, he developed brain-computer interfaces for epilepsy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. He received an MD from Emory University before completing his residency training and post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Rolston’s NIH-funded laboratory investigates how neural engineering can be used to map and ultimately rewire the diseased brain. The same tools can be used to better understand neural information processing and how it is disordered in illnesses like epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and psychiatric disease. Dr. Rolston ardently promotes patient safety in neurosurgery and has led several studies examining the frequency and causes of neurosurgical errors and complications. He has over 150 publications and has received numerous awards, such as the University of California’s Harold Rosegay Award for teaching and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons’ Basic Science Award for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.
