Keynote Speakers

Born in Giresun in 1961, Prof. Dr. Selçuk Peker completed his medical education at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine between 1978 and 1984, followed by his mandatory service as a general practitioner in Kayseri-Pınarbaşı from 1984 to 1987 and his neurosurgery residency at Hacettepe University from 1987 to 1993. After serving as a neurosurgery specialist in Ankara, Alanya, and Istanbul, he joined Marmara University Faculty of Medicine in 1999; during the same year, he completed fellowships in Gamma Knife Radiosurgery and Functional Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, as well as Movement Disorder Surgery and Pain Surgery at Oregon Health Sciences University. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 2000, earned the title of Associate Professor in 2005, and achieved the rank of Full Professor in January 2011, having served at Acıbadem Kozyatağı and Kadıköy Hospitals and as a faculty member at Acıbadem University between 2005 and 2016 before joining Koç University Hospital in January 2017. Beyond standard neurosurgical procedures, his specialized interests include Gamma Knife Radiosurgery—in which he has nearly 26 years of experience and a patient volume of approximately 16,000—as well as stereotactic and functional neurosurgery, movement disorder surgery, and pain surgery. An accomplished academic, he has published 247 articles in national and international journals, delivered 235 presentations at congresses, and has been a guest speaker at 351 conferences worldwide.

Born in Kütahya in 1970, Op. Dr. E. Onur Kulaksızoğlu graduated with honors from Ahmet Kanatlı High School and earned his medical degree from Ege University Faculty of Medicine between 1987 and 1993, during which time he also spearheaded the establishment of the inaugural “Drug Promotion Days” organization. After completing his mandatory service at Karaman State Hospital from 1993 to 1995, he underwent his neurosurgery residency at Erciyes University Training and Research Hospital between 1996 and 2003; notably, from 1999 to 2000, he served as an assistant to Prof. Dr. Paul Cooper, Chair of Spinal Surgery at New York University (NYU), where he completed specialized training in cervical and lumbar spinal microsurgery while contributing to numerous international publications and scientific presentations. Following his tenure at Baltalimanı Bone Diseases Hospital (2003–2005), Özel Bahat Health Group and GOP Hospital (2005–2009), and Istanbul Surgical Hospital (2009–2011), he has been providing patient care at his private practice in Terrace Fulya since 2011. With over 25 years of experience, Dr. Kulaksızoğlu is distinguished as one of the few surgeons in Turkey capable of performing spondylolisthesis (slipped disc) stabilization, lower back scoliosis correction, and microdiscectomies for herniated discs—all without general anesthesia—as well as microsurgical coccyx (tailbone) procedures and brain hemorrhage surgeries under local anesthesia, and he is widely recognized for his rapid microsurgical techniques and high clinical success.