Benjamin Elder, MD/PhD

Professor of Neurological Surgery and Orthopedics
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota

Benjamin Elder, MD/PhD, is a Professor of Neurological Surgery and Orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and he serves as the associate program director for the neurosurgery residency program. His clinical practice focuses on adult spinal deformity, complex spine surgery, and normal pressure hydrocephalus. He has an active clinical research program focused on gait mechanics in normal pressure hydrocephalus and outcomes of surgical treatment of normal pressure hydrocephalus, and oversees multiple clinical research projects focused on bone health optimization and treatment of osteoporosis for spinal pathologies and improving spinopelvic fixation, and he runs a basic science research lab focused on bone and cartilage tissue engineering approaches for the spine and spinal biomechanics.

He obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Rice University, and his M.D. at Baylor College of Medicine in the M.D./Ph.D. program. He completed his neurosurgery residency training at Johns Hopkins including an infolded neurosurgery complex spine fellowship under Dr. Ziya Gokaslan, and a postgraduate fellowship in orthopedic spinal deformity surgery under Dr. Khaled Kebaish. Additionally, he received extensive training in the management of adult hydrocephalus, working with Dr. Daniele Rigamonti and later Dr. Mark Luciano.