Renowned Neurosurgeon Edward Benzel, M.D., to Deliver Lecture on Nov. 19 at UAMS
| Edward Benzel, M.D., a renowned spinal neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, will be the featured speaker at the 2026 Flanagin-Boop Endowed Lecture at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
The lecture will begin at 5 p.m. Nov. 19 in the fourth-floor conference room of The Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital at UAMS, located at 801 Cottage Drive. The building has its own parking lot.
The title of Benzel’s lecture is “Cervical Spondylosis – Myelopathy and Deformity: My Journey.”
The public lecture, which is geared toward neurosurgeons, neurologists, spine practitioners, and orthopaedic specialists, is organized by the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery and the UAMS Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute. A reception will follow.
The Flanagin-Boop Endowed Lectureship in Spinal Neurosurgery honors the legacy of Stevenson Flanagin, M.D., former chair of the UAMS Department of Neurosurgery, and Warren C. Boop, M.D., who together built the neurosurgery residency program at UAMS.
Benzel is chairman emeritus of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic, which he chaired from 2007 through 2016. He is an expert in spine surgery, spine biomechanics, and cervical spine disorders.
He earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he also completed his residency in neurosurgery, as well as a fellowship in spine surgery.
He is one of the founding members of the Lumbar Spine Research Society and was the first chairman of the World Spine Society, now known as The World Spinal Column Society. He has received numerous honors over the years from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Journal of Neurosurgery, the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, and the Cleveland Clinic Alumni Association.
A virtual option is available for those who cannot attend in person. Registration is encouraged. To register and obtain a virtual link, visit: Flanigan-Boop Endowed Lectureship in Spinal Neurosurgery.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; hospitals in Little Rock and Bryant; an orthopaedic hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise, including affiliated hospitals in Pine Bluff, Helena-West Helena, Mena, and Warren. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,813 students and 1,030 medical residents and fellows, and two dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with about 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###