Mark Edwin Shaffrey MD

Mark Edwin Shaffrey, MD, is a professor of neurosurgery and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. He has won numerous awards for laboratory investigation and clinical medicine, including a traveling fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons. He has been named to the Best Doctors in America list.

Dr. Shaffrey graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Tech and received his medical degree from the University of Virginia, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. He completed his general surgical internship at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center and his neurosurgical training at the University of Virginia in 1994. During residency, he completed a clinical neuropathology fellowship and an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in microvascular physiology. He also trained as a skull base surgery fellow in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and served as a neurosurgical registrar in Plymouth, England.

Following his postgraduate training, Dr. Shaffrey served as chief of neurosurgery at Keesler USAF Medical Center and was decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal. In 1997, he returned to the University of Virginia as an associate professor of neurosurgery and founded the Neuro-Oncology Center. He was appointed chair of the Department of Neurosurgery in 2006.

Dr. Shaffrey’s research interests in neuro-oncology include cellular invasion and molecular migration mechanisms. He has approximately 100 publications and has been a funded principal investigator in over 40 grants and clinical trials. He serves on the editorial board and as a topic editor for the Self-Assessment in Neurological Surgery (SANS). He is also a reviewer for the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Surgical Neurology, and Cancer.

In addition, Dr. Shaffrey plays an active role in organized neurosurgery, having served in several roles for the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.