Education

Biography

Walter A. Hall, M.D., MBA is Professor of Neurosurgery at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. Prior to his arrival in Syracuse in 2007, he was a Professor of Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology, and Radiology at the University Of Minnesota School of Medicine and the Shelly N. and Jolene J. Chou Chair in Neurosurgery. Dr. Hall received his B.A. degree from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1979 and his M.D. degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1983. He completed his General Surgery Internship at the University of Pittsburgh in 1984 and his neurosurgical residency was completed at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990. During his training, he spent two years at the National Institutes of Health in the Surgical Neurology Branch as a Medical Staff Fellow from 1987 to 1989. He was the 1990 recipient of the Van Wagenen Fellowship of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons which he spent working in the Department of Tumor Biology of the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo, Norway. Dr. Hall joined the faculty of the University Of Minnesota School of Medicine in February 1991. In 1996 he was awarded the Mahaley Clinical Research Award in brain tumors by the Joint Section of Tumors of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. In 1998, Dr. Hall received his M.B.A. degree from the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota. He was the Director of the Brain Tumor Center of Minnesota and has extensive clinical and laboratory experience in developing new therapeutic modalities for treating brain tumors. Treatment modalities for brain tumors that have been developed under Dr. Hall’s guidance include stereotactic radiosurgery, fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy, blood-brain barrier disruption chemotherapy, interventional magnetic resonance imaging-guided neurosurgery, and targeted toxin therapy. He performed more that 1,000 neurosurgical procedures using intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging guidance over from 1997 to 2007. In addition, Dr. Hall has authored more than 180 publications on brain tumors, targeted toxins, intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging-guided neurosurgery, and central nervous system infections.

Research Interest

• Targeted Toxin Therapy
• Neuro-Oncology
• Brain Tumors
• Stereotactic Radiosurgery
• Intraoperative MRI-Guided Neurosurgery
• Convection Enhanced Diffusion
• Central Nervous System Infections

Scientific Activities

• Van Wagenen Fellowship Committee of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (2007)
• Chairman, Van Wagenen Selection Committee of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (2006-2007)
• Society of Neurological Surgeons (2007)
• Onondaga County Medical Society (2007)
• Medical Society of the State of New York (2007)
• New York State Neurosurgical Society (2007-2009)
• Intraoperative Imaging Society (2008)
• Board of Directors (2008-2010)
• American Board of Neurological Surgery
• Guest Oral Board Examiner (May 2008)
• American Radium Society (2009)

Publications

1. Hall WA. 3-tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging-guided tumor resection at 1.5-tesla. In 2nd International Symposium on the Development of Surgical Support Systems, March 1-2, 2007, Tokyo, Japan.
2. Hall WA. Current and emerging strategies for brain tumor management. Annual SUNY Upstate Medical University Department of Neurosurgery Neuro Research Day, March 16, 2007, Syracuse.
3. Hall WA. Radiation: Radiosurgery + WBRT? In 13th Annual Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption Consortium Meeting in collaboration with International Brain Barriers Society “Primary & Metastatic Brain Tumors: Is More Treatment Better than Less?” March 22-24, 2007, Stevenson, Washington.
4. Hall WA. Clinical categorical Course. MR-Guided Interventions: The Use of Interventional MRI for neurosurgery. In Joint Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology, May 19-25, 2007, Berlin, Germany.
5. Hall WA. 3-tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging-guided tumor resection at 1.5-tesla. In Annual Meeting of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, September 2-7, 2007, Glasgow, UK.
6. McClelland S III, Hall WA: Postoperative central nervous system infection: incidence      and associated factors in 2,111 neurosurgery cases. In the 57th Annual Meeting of the              Congress of Neurological Surgeons, September 2007, San Diego.
7. Hall WA. Emerging therapies for primary brain tumors. Upstate Cancer Symposium:        When Cancer Presents as a Common Clinical Problem. Convention Center at Oncenter,       September 28, 2007, Syracuse.
8. Hall WA. Scientific Innovation in Brain Tumor Treatment. Conference Celebrating the    Life & Accomplishments of Peter J. Jannetta, M.D., September 13, 2007, Pittsburgh.
9. Hall WA. Intraoperative MRI-guided neurosurgery. Neuroscience Grand Rounds. SUNY Upstate Medical University, October 31, 2007, Syracuse.
10. Hall WA. Intraoperative MRI-Guided Neurosurgery. In the 58th Annual Post-Graduate      Review Course in Ophthalmology, November 30-December 1, 2007, Syracuse.
11. Hall WA. Functional MR-guided tumor resection. In the 1st Annual Meeting of the             Intraoperative Imaging Society, February 21-23, 2008, Lake Tahoe.
12. Hall WA. Session keynote: Intraoperative MR-guided neurosurgery. NIH Workshop on    Clinical Image-Guided Therapy: Opportunities and Needs, March 10-11, 2008, Rockville.
13. Hall WA. Convection enhanced delivery: neurosurgical issues. In 14th Annual Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption Consortium Meeting “Advancing Blood-Brain Barrier Translational Research” March 12-15, 2008, Stevenson, Washington.
14. Hall WA. Functional MR-guided tumor resection. In Ethics-Basics-Clinics in Neurosurgery. International Symposium in Kiel, April 10-12, 2008, Kiel, Germany.
15. Kim PD, Jennings JS, Middleton FA, Canute GW, Hall WA. Microarray analysis of paired initial and recurrent high grade gliomas. In the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, April 26-May 1, 2008, Chicago.
16. Hall WA. Intraoperative MR – the neurosurgical perspective. In 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Neuroradiology, May 31-June 5, 2008, New Orleans.
17. Hall WA. How to pursue an academic career in neurosurgery (Luncheon Seminar T37). In the 58th Annual Meeting of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, September 20-25, 2008, Orlando.
18. Hall WA. High field MRI for neurosurgical guidance. In the 7th Annual Symposium on Clinical High Field MRI of the Department of Radiology of Stanford University School of Medicine, October 17-18, 2008, Las Vegas.
19. Hall WA. Convection-enhanced delivery: neurosurgical issues. In 4th Fabisch-Symposium for Cancer Research and Molecular Cell Biology, 2nd TARGETED TUMOR THERAPIES, April 1-April 3, 2009, Berlin, Germany.
20. Hall WA (Moderator). Continental breakfast seminar MB II: Intraoperative Imaging. In 15th Quadrennial Meeting of the World Society of Stereotactic and Functional           Neurosurgery (WSSFN), May 24-27, 2009, Toronto, Canada.
21. Hall WA. State of the Art: Intraoperative MRI. In 2nd Meeting of the Intra-operative         Imaging Society, June 14-17, 2009, Istanbul, Turkey.
22. Hall WA. Topic Session: Intraoperative MRI: Technology and applications. In XIV World Congress of Neurological Surgery of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, August 30-September 4, 2009, Boston.
23. Hall WA. How to develop an academic career in neurosurgery (Luncheon Seminar M16). In the 59th Annual Meeting of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, October 24-29, 2009, New Orleans.
24. Hall WA. Intra-operative MRI in neurosurgery. In Philips Interventional MRI Council, September 22-23, 2010, Leipzig, Germany.
25. Hall WA, Truwit CL. Optimal design for an intraoperative MRI-guided neurosurgical suite. In Eighth Interventional MRI Symposium, September 24-25, 2010, Leipzig, Germany.
26. Hall WA. Intraoperative MRI in neurosurgery. In AORN of Greater Syracuse Fall Fling Teaching Day, October 16, 2010, Syracuse.
27. Hall WA, Truwit CL. Optimal design for an intraoperative MRI-guided neurosurgical suite. In Third Intraoperative Imaging Society Meeting, January 16-19, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland.
28. Hall WA. Intraoperative MRI-guided neurosurgery. In Third Changsha International Neurosurgery Symposium and 2012 Annual Meeting of Hunan Neurosurgical Society, September 21-24, 2012, Changsha, China.
29. Hall WA. Head trauma: issues and answers. General Surgery Grand Rounds, Upstate Medical University, November 28, 2012, Syracuse.
30. Li YM, Goyal P, Hall WA. Endoscopic transsphenoidal pituitary surgery: results, safety and cost effectiveness in 134 consecutive cases. In 23rd Annual North American Skull Base Society Meeting, February 13-14, 2013, Miami.
31. Li YM, Mousavi S, Huang J, Vallera DA, Hall WA. Intracranial therapy of glioblastoma by CED with a novel bispecific ligand-directed diphtheria toxin targeting EGF and uPA receptors. In AANS/CNS Biennial Satellite Tumor Symposium, April 26-27, 2013, New Orleans.
32. Hall WA. Brain metastases. Neuroscience Grand Rounds, Upstate Medical University, April 1, 2015, Syracuse.
33. Bodman A, Wang X, Salamanca H, Shi C, Luo J, Hall W. Lipid-like nanoparticles for diphtheria toxin delivery in treatment of glioblastoma multiforme. In AANS/CNS Biennial Satellite Tumor Symposium, May 1-2, 2015, Washington, D.C.