Speaker: John L.D. Atkinson, M.D. – Department of Neurologic Surgery
John L. D. Atkinson received a BS degree in biology and mathematics from the University of Alabama, and an MD degree from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. He completed a neurosurgery residency at the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education in 1990. He was a lieutenant commander in the US Navy 1990-1994 and served with distinction in the US Marine Corps in the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait theater of operations during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in the Department of Neurologic Surgery in 1994, and he is a Professor of Neurosurgery in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He is the neurosurgery trauma liaison to the Trauma Subcommittee, he serves on the Acquired Brain Disorders Subcommittee, and he is of the neurosurgical-neurological intensive care unit. He has served as secretary of the Neurosurgical Society of America for 2 terms 2007-2013 and as President 2016-2017. He has served as chair of the Advisory Council for Neurological Surgery of the American College of Surgeons 2009-2012 and is currently on the Board of Regents for the College. He is of over 140 publications and 15 book chapters.
Dr. Atkinson’s presentation, “The Vanishing Point of Reality,” will introduce modern physics in easily understood lay terms. The objective is to help attendees realize that modern physics does not provide adequate explanations, does not relate to worldly experience, and, as a result, does not define reality.