About Our Founder
Rosario A. Zappulla, MD, PhD
Dr. Rosario A. Zappulla, Neurosurgeon, Scientist and Educator, who led The New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey, since its inception in 1992, died suddenly on February 14, 2002. He was 56 years old. Under his direction, the Institute developed into a leading center for the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorders. In addition to his central role in the Institute's Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, he continued his active practice in all facets of neurosurgery, including stereotactic radiosurgery. Together with Dr. Martin Gizzi, the Institute's Director of Neurology, Dr. Zappulla assembled a staff of diverse clinical experts as well as a number of scientists engaged in basic and clinical research. Since 1994, he served as Professor and Chief of the Department of Neuroscience at The Seton Hall University School of Graduate Medical Education.
Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Dr. Zappulla obtained his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1972. He began his medical career as a surgical intern at the University of Maryland University Hospital the following year, and completed a neurosurgical residency training program at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City in 1977. After an additional year as a Neurosurgical Fellow, he received clinical and academic appointments at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center where he served in several capacities, including Co-Director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program and Vice-Chairman of the Department, rising to the rank of Professor in 1988. While remaining clinically and academically active at the Medical Center, Dr. Zappulla earned a PhD in Neuropsychology from The City University of New York.
Among his scholarly achievements, Dr. Zappulla published scores of peer-reviewed articles in prestigious medical, technical and scientific journals; authored chapters in several books; lectured; and made numerous presentations of his widely-ranging research to colleagues at meeting of scientific societies. His published work included fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of quantitative brain-wave analysis, cognitive eletrophysiology, event related potentials and intraoperative monitoring. His work was greatly enhanced by his development of efficient, versatile and powerful software for automated analysis of the voluminous neuroelectrical data required to localize the source of abnormal irritability in the brain of each patient. His outstanding operative skills in the surgical treatment of patients with uncontrolled seizures were coupled with overriding ethical and human concerns.
Works in progress, interrupted by his death, dealt with the addition of microelectrode recording from the depths of the brain, in order to improve the surgical treatment of patients with intractable epilepsy; and the design of a system to derive accurate three-dimensional brain-maps of electrophysiologic data, using advanced imaging techniques. He was also near completion of plans to extend the range of the Institute's expertise in stereotactic procedures to include the surgical treatment of Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Zappulla will be missed and remembered by his friends and colleagues for his unmatched integrity, loyalty and generosity; for his passionate desire to know more and to help more patients more effectively, and for his vision which gave purpose to the work and the workplace of the Institute. He offered open-ended opportunity to many talented but unproven physicians and scientists, encouraged them and gave them selfless support in return for their continued effort to achieve. He will also be missed for the rare, animated, after-hours thoughts he shared and defended on arcane philosophical and religious issues. What dreams he had for The Neuroscience Institute, and what he was also able to achieve in his tragically brief life are well known to all who worked with him and shared those dreams. His work will be continued.