For long-time Stanford neurosurgeon Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD, it was a course in psychobiology -- "the very beginning of neuroscience" -- that he took at Columbia University as a high-schooler that set him on the medical path. In college he turned his attention to neurology, but medical school rotations, during which he discovered a love for surgery and the anatomy of the body, drew him towards neurosurgery.
In this Stanford Health Care video, Steinberg explains that "seeing the nervous system and the elegance of the structures really had an effect on me. I ended up really falling in love with cerebral vascular surgery."
Though Steinberg has been a practicing neurosurgeon for decades, he says that the task of operating on somebody's brain never grows less daunting: "I think that's good, that you have a little bit of anxiety [about surgery]. You don't want to become too complacent about operating on the brain."
Previously: Why become a doctor? A personal story from a Stanford neurosurgeon, Why become a doctor? A personal story from a Stanford plastic surgeon, and Why become a doctor? A personal story from a Stanford oncologist
Photo in thumbnail by Angela Wyant
