Boop Family Gives $50,000 to Train Neurosurgeons

By Ben Boulden

Frederick Boop, M.D., center, T. Glenn Pait, M.D., left, and J.D. Day, M.D., visit before Boop delivers the annual Yasargil lecture.

The funds will pass to UAMS through the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ (AANS) Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation (NREF) where they will be earmarked for use by the chairman of the UAMS Department of Neurosurgery for the residents.

“I would hope that those of you in the audience will consider giving to this fund,” Boop said after delivering The M. Gazi and Dianne C.H. Yaşargil Endowed Lectureship on campus Jan. 30.

“If we can build it, we can use it for exciting things like visiting professorships, laboratory research and sending residents to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) meeting every year,” Boop said.

“We would like to thank the Boop family for their kindness and generosity, and indeed, we will add to this.  We will call upon others to help it grow as well,” said T. Glenn Pait, M.D., professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery and director of the UAMS Jackson T. Stephens Spine Neurosciences Institute.

Boop lectures about  awake craniotomy.

“This Institution will back it strongly, and we hope to come up quickly with matching funds. I think we can expand on that and get it up to $100,000 very soon.”

After growing up in Little Rock, Frederick Boop, the son of Warren Boop, received his medical degree from UAMS, where he also completed a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship. Boop is a professor and chairman of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Department of Neurosurgery, co-director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, all in Memphis.

Before the announcement, Boop spoke to an audience of physicians, students and faculty about “Awake Craniotomy — Isn’t It Time We Put It To Sleep?.”

J.D. Day, M.D., Department of Neurosurgery chair, said guest speakers will be invited to lecture every year as part of the series.

Pait, left, and Boop, take a moment before the lecture to view a photo portrait of Gazi Yasargil.

The nonprofit foundation created by the AANS supports research and education that enhance and confirm the critical role neurosurgeons play in improving lives. It is dedicated to providing education to neurosurgeons at all stages of their careers as well as funding research.