C. Hunter Shelden

http://www.societyns.org/society/bio.aspx?MemberID=18283

Senior: 1967 Vice-President: 1966-1967 Council: 1967-1968

1907-2003

C. HUNTER SHELDEN was born in Minneapolis Minnesota on March 27, 1907. Following pre-medical education at the University of Wisconsin and the Albert Ludwigs Universitaet in Freiburg, Germany, he received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1932. He served an internship at General Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri (1932-33). He then received a Fellowship to the Mayo Clinic, where he subsequently served as Junior Neurological Surgeon (1938-40). In 1937, he was granted a M.Sci. in Neurosurgery from the University of Minnesota. His interest in neurosurgery was surely influenced in part by his father, who founded the Section in Clinical Neurology at the Mayo Clinic. After seven years of general and neurosurgical training at the Mayo Clinic and a short period of practice in California, he spent four years as Head of the Neurosurgical Service at the U.S. Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland (1942-46). At Bethesda, he and Dr. Pudenz met and became a neurosurgical team and research partners - an association that has been close, mutually rewarding, and very productive. Their film made at Bethesda documenting research on head injuries as viewed through the lucite calvarium has become a classic. For the first time movement of the brain with sudden acceleration and deceleration was demonstrated. 

Dr. Shelden was a pioneer in the field of automobile safety. His article in the JAMA in 1955 created widespread interest in developing safety features in automobiles including seat belts, elevated head rests to reduce whiplash, and further measures including restraints against head-on collisions, now implemented by installation of air bags. 

In the late 1970s, Drs. Shelden and Pudenz retired from surgical practice and returned to fulltime careers in biomedical engineering. The Neurovascular Foundation which they founded in the 1950s developed into the multidepartmental Huntington Institute for Applied Medical Research. The most notable research includes: an early automated digital system for neural stimulation; an early form of auditory function by cochlear stimulation; an implanted induction system for trigeminal pain control; in vivo studies of visual cortex stimulation; development of control of hydrocephalus, which led to the Pudenz shunt system; development of a stereotaxic microsurgical system consisting of 3-D computerized tumor reconstruction; and development of an original tumorscope with binocular endoscope and effective laser tumor removal. At present they are actively involved in stroke research including improved methods for early intervention and in developing new types of therapy. 

Dr. Shelden is a Clinical Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, and is a Research Associate in the Division of Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. 

Dr. Shelden has served as presiding officer of the American Board of Neurological Surgery (Chairman); Southern California Neurosurgical Association (President, 1953); Western Neurosurgical Society (President, 1960); and the American Academy of Neurological Surgery (President 1960). In 1980, he was named Neurosurgeon of the Year by the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, and was the recipient of the NASA Scientific Award. 

Dr. Shelden and his wife, the former Elizabeth Pattison, have three sons: Jay, Jim and Geoffrey.