Hawk Talk March
Academics

Marist High School’s leadership program, Explore, will host its second “Hawk Talk” featuring Dr. Richard Byrne, MD, the Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Rush University Medical Center. The event will take place on Tuesday, March 15, 6:30 to 7:30pm in the school’s RedHawk Theatre.

The evening’s theme, A Compass for Your Travels: Finding Success in the World of Medicine, aims to give students insider knowledge into the challenges and rewards of navigating through college and medical school, and establishing a fulfilling career in medicine. Dr. Byrne will speak about his journey and take questions from students. 

After graduating from Marist in 1983, Dr. Byrne completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois in 1987 and received his medical doctorate at Northwestern University Medical School in 1991. Byrne graduated from the neurosurgical residency training program at Rush University Medical Center in 1997 and joined the faculty after additional training in epilepsy and brain tumor surgery.

Dr. Byrne is a board-certified neurosurgeon who specializes in surgical treatment for epilepsy, skull base and brain tumor surgery, pituitary surgery, trigeminal neuralgia and radiosurgery. He has been actively involved in a number of epilepsy and brain tumor surgery trials, basic science research in epileptogenesis and brain tumor genetics and has authored more than 100 manuscripts, book chapters and two textbooks on these subjects. Dr. Byrne has been in practice for 18 years and has performed over 2,000 brain tumor operations and epilepsy surgeries.

(Many may recognize Dr. Byrne from television commercials for Rush University Medical Center.)