Ralph G. Dacey, Jr

2012, Chicago, IL

Ralph G. Dacey, Jr., was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 7, 1948. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1970 and his M.D. degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1974. He subsequently served as a neurosurgical resident at UVA. He was an American College of Surgeons Schering Scholar, a post-doctoral fellow in physiology and worked as a neurosurgical registrar in Plymouth, England. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Neurological Surgery.

Following his post-graduate training he became an Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. He subsequently was appointed Professor and Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill. He is currently the Henry G. and Edith R. Schwartz Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Dacey is currently the President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons. He recently served as Chairman of the Residency Review Committee for Neurosurgery and was a member of the ACGME Resident Duty Hours Task Force. In October of 2010 he was elected into the Institute of Medicine and subsequently became a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of St. Louis. He is the past President and Treasurer of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery and past Vice President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons. He was the Chairman and Secretary of the American Board of Neurological Surgery as well as President and Treasurer of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Academy of Neurological Surgery, American College of Surgeons, American Heart Association, American Medical Association, American Surgical Association, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Neurosurgical Society of America, Research Society of Neurological Surgeons, Society of Neurological Surgeons, Society of University Surgeons, and the Southern Neurosurgical Society.

He is a consultant neurosurgeon for the St. Louis Rams and the St. Louis Blues.

Dr. Dacey’s clinical interests range from cerebrovascular surgery to the surgery of pituitary tumors and meningiomas. His research focuses on the physiology of intracerebral microcirculation. He was awarded a Clinician Investigator Development Award by the National Institutes of Health and has been funded by NIH for many years. His CV lists over 190 publications in the area of neurosurgery and cerebrovascular physiology. He has served as a member of the NIH’s National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council. In 2003 he received the prestigious Grass Foundation Award from the Society of Neurological Surgeons.