About WANS
Mission & History
Mission
WANS is a non-profit public benefit organization founded in 2005 as an honor academy to promote collaboration and camaraderie among world-leading neurosurgeons — with the mandate to share scientific knowledge and experience, support international education and advanced neurosurgical practice, foster humanitarian advocacy, and recognize elite neurosurgeons and pioneers for their achievements.
History
The idea of creating an international neurosurgical academy arose for the first time from Dr. Ossama Al-Mefty in 1995. For ten years this idea was discussed among prominent neurosurgeons around the world, and these neurosurgeons came to the conclusion that, for the purposes of global scientific exchange, a nonprofit neurosurgical society should be formed under the name of the “World Academy of Neurological Surgery” (WANS).
WANS held its inaugural meeting in Atami, Japan in October 2005, and has since convened a biennial meeting — and, frequently, an interim meeting in the years between — bringing together its members from every inhabited continent.