Professor Guilherme C. Ribas obtained his medical degree from the Federal University of São Paulo in São Paulo in 1977. Between 1978 and 1982 he trained in neurosurgery at the University of São Paulo under Professor Gilberto Machado de Almeida and at the University of Virginia under Professor John A Jane. In 1985 he was a visiting research fellow at Professor Albert Rhoton’s laboratory at the University of Florida.

He obtained a doctorate in Neurology in 1991 and in 2005 became a Professor of Surgery at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School. He is oversees graduate and post-graduate courses in neuroanatomy at the Department of Surgery headed by Professor Aldo Junqueira Rodrigues Jr. Professor Ribas’ research focused on microneurosurgical anatomy and on cranial neurosurgical techniques has produced numerous high-impact publications in this field. His paper “The cerebral sulci and gyri” published in Neurosurgical Focus was the most downloaded paper of the year 2010 of the Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group. His neurosurgical practice is based at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo, and he specialises in surgery for intrinsic and extrinsic brain tumours.

Since 1995 Professor Ribas teaches Surgical Neuroanatomy at the Department of Neurosurgery of the University of Virginia, where in 1997 he was appointed Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery. He also serves as a faculty on “Sulcus, Gyrus and Ventricles” hands on course in neurosurgical anatomy held also annually in Braga, Portugal, since 2003, together with Professors Evandro de Oliveira, Albert Rhoton, Ugur Ture and Antonio Cesar Mussi. He was the fist guest speaker of the Cambridge Lectures in Neurosurgical Anatomy in 2005 and since has served as a faculty and organiser of this course.

Professor Ribas is a keen photographer and he managed to carry this passion with him into the field of neurosurgical education. Professor Ribas is one of the pioneers of neurosurgical 3D photography, projection and printing. His world class collection of anatomical and per-operative images stands out not only because of cleverly planned and meticulously prepared dissections, the clarity of photography, but also because of its exceptional aesthetic value.

Written by Thomas Santarius