Yoko Kato MD, PhD

Prof. Yoko Kato is professor and chair of the department of neurosurgery of Fujita Health University Banbuntane Hotokukai Hospital in Aichi, Japan. She received her medical degree from the Aichi Medical University in 1978. After finishing their residency in the department of neurosurgery at Aichi, she joined the department of neurosurgery at Fujita Health University. Subsequently, in 1981, she served as an instructor of neurosurgery at the Suzhou Medical College in China before returning to Fujita Health University’s department of neurosurgery in 1983 as an assistant instructor. She was board certified by the Japan Neurological Society in 1985. In 1986, she went to Australia to pursue research and became a research fellow at the department of neurosurgery, Graz University, Austria.

She returned to Fujita Health University’s department of neurosurgery in 1989 as an assistant professor and there expanded her career as a neurosurgeon for the subsequent 11 years. She was promoted to associate professor at Fujita in 2000 and in 2006 became the first female professor of neurosurgery in Japan. Her exemplary performance has continued as she became professor and chair, department of neurosurgery, Fujita Health University Banbuntane Hotokukai Hospital, and named as chief of its associated Stroke Center in 2014. Presently, she serves as an affiliate professor at Mainz University in Germany; George Washington University, Washington, DC, in the U.S.; and the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute in Chennai, Professor Kato plays a conspicuous role in a number of neurosurgical scholarly activities and has served as assistant secretary of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), on the board of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies Foundation Committee, as chair of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies Women in Neurosurgery Committee, on the advisory board for the Tenth Asian-Australasian Congress of Neurological Surgery, as the Secretary of the WFNS Foundation Committee, and as the chair of the WFNS Education and Training Committee.