Griffith Rutherford Harsh IV (born July 25, 1953) is an American

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

. In 2018, he became the chair of the department of neurological surgery at UC Davis Health. He is married to business executive

Meg Whitman Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...

. He is a direct descendant of Revolutionary War General and North Carolina State Senator

Griffith Rutherford Griffith Rutherford (c. 1721 – August 10, 1805) was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War, a political leader in North Carolina, and an important figure in the early history of the Southwest Territory and the state of Ten ...

(1721–1805).

Early life and education

Griffith Rutherford Harsh IV was born in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in 1953. The son of his namesake, Griffith Harsh III, the younger Griffith became determined to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a neurosurgeon. Harsh graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and became a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

. At Oxford, he obtained a master's degree in neurological sciences. After his two years at Oxford, he enrolled at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

, graduating in 1980. He moved on to complete his residency and fellowship training in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Brain Tumor Research Center at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

Career

Griffith Harsh IV graduated from Harvard College in 1975 and Harvard Medical School in 1980. He completed his residency at the department of neurosurgery and the brain tumor research center at the

(UCSF) in 1986. The following year he completed his fellowship in neurosurgery at UCSF. In addition, Griff Harsh completed a fellowship in clinical neuro-oncology at UCSF and another fellowship in skull base surgery and acoustic neuromas at the University of Pittsburgh. During his career, Harsh has focused on the surgical and radiation treatment of

pituitary adenomas Pituitary adenomas are tumors that occur in the pituitary gland. Most pituitary tumors are benign, approximately 35% are invasive and just 0.1% to 0.2% are carcinomas.glial Glia, also called glial cells (gliocytes) or neuroglia, are non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system that do not produce electrical impulses. They maintain homeostasis, form mye ...

tumors, and acoustic

neuromas A neuroma (; plural: neuromata or neuromas) is a growth or tumor of nerve tissue. Neuromas tend to be benign tumor, benign (i.e. not malignant, cancerous); many Nervous tissue#Tumours, nerve tumors, including those that are commonly malignant, ar ...

. He served as the vice chair of the department of neurosurgery, the director of the Stanford brain tumor center, and as associate dean of CME education at the

Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

. He also served as a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Stanford University Medical Center and Program Director of Neurosurgery Residency at Stanford. He is certified in neurological surgery by the

American Board of Neurological Surgery American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. , he is the Julian R. Youmans Chair in Neurological Surgery at UC Davis Medical Center. Harsh is a member of the board of fellows of Harvard Medical School.

Neurosurgical advancements

Harsh has been credited with the creation of a device that assists in aggressive intratumoral radiation. In 2001, Stanford released news of this device and preliminary studies indicated that the risks associated with radiation therapy for brain tumors are noticeably lower when using this device. Approved by the FDA, the device was tested in a study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the Stanford Brain Tumor Center currently uses it in patients with newly diagnosed or recurring primary or metastatic brain tumors. Harsh has published over 100 clinical and scientific articles, including several identifying key pathways in brain tumorigenesis, appearing in ''

PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Scien ...

'', ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'', and the ''

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. Hist ...

''.

Personal life

Harsh is married to

, the former CEO of

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

and former CEO of

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas, United States. HPE was founded on November 1, 2015, in Palo Alto, California, as part of the splitting of the H ...

; she was also the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Republican nominee for

governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harsh, Griffith R. 1953 births 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American physicians Alumni of New College, Oxford American Rhodes Scholars American neurosurgeons Harvard Medical School alumni Living people People from Atherton, California Physicians from California Physicians from Missouri Stanford University School of Medicine faculty University of California, San Francisco alumni 20th-century surgeons