James Rutka

James Rutka
Born	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Education	Princeton University, Queen's University (MD), McGill University (Internship), University of Toronto (Neurosurgery Training Program), University of California San Francisco (PhD), University of Nagoya (Clinical Fellowship), Jutendo University (Post-doctoral Research Fellowship)
Medical career
Profession	Neurosurgeon
Research	Brain Tumours, Astrocytoma, Medulloblastoma, Cell Biology, Genetics

James Rutka (born January 14, 1956) is a Canadian neurosurgeon from Toronto, Canada, and the RS McLaughlin Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He subspecializes in pediatric neurosurgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids), and is a Senior Scientist in the Research Institute at Sick Kids. His main clinical interests include the neurosurgical treatment of children with brain tumours and epilepsy. His research interests lie in the molecular biology of human brain tumours – specifically in the determination of the mechanisms by which brain tumours grow and invade. He is the Director of the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at Sick Kids, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2015.

Rutka was born in Toronto, Canada. He studied Chemical Engineering at Princeton University before obtaining his MD from Queen's University in 1981. Following an internship at McGill's Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Rutka embarked on his neurosurgery residency training at the University of Toronto beginning in 1982. From 1984-87, he undertook graduate studies at the University of California San Francisco and worked in the Brain Tumour Research Centre. There, he received his PhD in Experimental Pathology from the School of Graduate Studies in 1987. Upon completion of his residency training in 1990 and receipt of certification in neurosurgery as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC), Rutka did a clinical fellowship in microvascular neurosurgery with Kenichiro Sugita at Nagoya University followed by a post-doctoral research fellowship at Juntendo University in molecular immunology under the supervision of Ko Okumura in Tokyo in 1990.

Rutka joined the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 1990. He was appointed to Sick Kids Hospital, where he contributed to a variety of techniques to treat children with neurosurgical conditions. He also established the first brain tumour research laboratory at Sick Kids focusing on the molecular biology and genetics of paediatric and adult brain tumours. In 1997, and in collaboration with his colleagues in Toronto, Rutka was influential in establishing the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at Sick Kids, now one of the largest centres of its kind in the world. In 1999, Rutka was appointed Professor in Neurosurgery in the Department of Surgery, and the Dan Family Professor and Chair of the Division of Neurosurgery, a position he held until 2010. Currently, Rutka is the RS McLaughlin Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto.

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