The CNS organizers recognized the principle that there are far too few honors available to compensate for the daily dedication and selflessness of so many scientists.

An early idea was to honor the best and the brightest neurosurgeons living anywhere in the world. All of the Founders and most of the early members were under 45 years of age. Thus in the beginning, we selected honorees from among high achievers in older age brackets. It was recognized that later on some CNS members would grow into giant status and be honored at an  Annual Meeting.

It was not easy to pay the expenses of overseas honorees, and resist the pressures applied by older professionals to capture our honorees for their own private agenda.