Gerald E. Rodts, Jr.
2010, San Francisco
Gerald E. (Rusty) Rodts, Jr., MD, is honored to serve as President of the CNS. He is Professor of Neurological Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery at Emory University, School of Medicine, where he has worked since 1994. Dr. Rodts majored in Biology at Princeton University where he also received a certificate for Science in Human Affairs. He completed his medical degree at The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in the City of New York. He thanks Bennett Stein, MD, Donald Quest, MD, Peter Carmel, MD, and others for stimulating his initial interest in neurosurgery. Dr. Rodts received his neurosurgery training at the University of California, Los Angeles, under the tutelage of Donald Becker, MD, Ulrich Batzdorf, MD, Neal Martin, MD, Keith Black, MD, Duncan McBride, MD, John Frazee, MD, and others. He is also grateful to the late Ed Dawson, MD, UCLA Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, for his teachings in spine surgery. Dr. Rodts completed a post-graduate fellowship in spine surgery under Regis Haid, MD, at Emory University in Atlanta in 1995. He joined the Emory faculty the same year. Dr. Rodts has held numerous volunteer and elected positions in the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He has served as Vice President, Secretary, Member-at-Large, Ex-Officio, Chairman of the Bylaws Committee, and Chairman of the CNS Delegation to the CSNS. He has served as Chairman of the Scientific Program Committee and as Annual Meeting Chairman. He has held numerous positions on the Scientific Program Committee and Sergeant-at-Arms Committee. In addition to his work with the CNS, Dr. Rodts has served as Chairman, Treasurer, Scientific Program Chairman, and Annual Meeting Chairman of the Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves. He has served as the President of the Georgia Neurosurgical Society, and is a member of the Academy of Neurological Surgeons and the Society of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Rodts’s clinical and academic interests include degenerative pathology of the spine, rheumatoid arthritis, congenital abnormalities of the cervical spine and skull base, and minimally-invasive and computer-assisted image guidance of the spine. He has published numerous peerreviewed articles and book chapters and has co-edited several textbooks and surgical atlases. He was an original founder and developer of the award winning educational web site SpineUniverse.com. He is on the editorial board of The Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques, The Japanese Spine Journal, and he is a frequent reviewer for NEUROSURGERY. He is Director of the Post-Graduate Fellowship in Spine Surgery at Emory University, Department of Neurosurgery. Born in Wichita, Kansas, and having moved frequently during his youth around the Midwest and Northeast, Dr. Rodts enjoys life in Atlanta with his wife Kelly and his three boys Teddy, Duncan and Brady and daughter Lane. The Rodts family is avidly engaged in baseball, golf, soccer, football, and winter and ocean sports.