Cloward Award Recipient
2011: John Jane, Sr., MD, PhD
Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia
Lecture: Anterior versus Posterior Approaches to the Cervical Spine
John Anthony Jane was born in September 1931 in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA, cum laude in 1951. He then attended the University of Chicago School of Medicine, receiving his Doctor of Medicine in 1956. He did his internship at the Royal Victoria Hospital at McGill University and returned to begin his Neurosurgical residency at the University of Chicago clinics in 1957 with Dr. Sean Mullan. In 1958 he was a Fellow in Neurophysiology at Montreal Neurological Institute with Dr. Herbert Jasper.
In 1959 he was a Senior Fellow in Neuropathology and in 1960 a Demonstrator in Neuropathology, both at McGill University in Montreal. In 1961 he was a Research Assistant in Neurosurgery to Sir Wylie McKissock at Atkinson Morley Hospital in London, England. In 1962, he was a Research Associate with the Department of Psychology at Duke University with Irving T. Diamond who was his PhD advisor. He then completed his Neurosurgical residency in 1963-1964 at the University of Illinois Research and Educational Hospital and the Illinois Neuropsychiatric Institute with Oscar Sugar and Eric Oldberg. The year 1965 found Dr. Jane as Senior Instructor in Neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University.
In 1967, Dr. Jane completed and was awarded a PhD from the University of Chicago, Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Biopsychology. After 4 years at Case Western Reserve, Dr. Jane assumed in 1969, the position of Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Virginia. As of July 1, 2006, Dr. Jane stepped down as Chairman but remains on as Program Director.
While at Case Western Reserve with Frank Nulsen, he was involved in the training of Donald Becker, Harold Young, and Martin Weiss and subsequently, at the University of Virginia, in the training of 17 Professors, 11 of whom became Chairmen, 6 Associate Professors, and 8 Assistant Professors. Dr. Jane became a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery in 1984. He became the Chairman of the Editorial Board in 1990, the Associate Editor in 1991 and in 1992, he was elected Editor. He is also Editor and founder of Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine and Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
He is married to Noella Fortier of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Janes’ have four grown children (3 daughters and 1 son), six grandsons and two granddaughters.
