Dr. Gregory W. Albers is the Director of the Stanford Stroke Center, a position he has held since co-founding the center in 1992. Under his guidance, the Stroke Center has trained more than 40 clinical stroke specialists; many of these individuals are directing stroke centers at academic institutions throughout the world. Dr. Albers’ primary research focus is the diagnosis, management, and prevention of ischemic stroke. Dr. Albers was instrumental in the development a medical imaging platform called RAPID that allows physicians to identify stroke patients who have salvageable brain tissue. RAPID was used to select patients for enrollment in the EXTEND, EXTEND-IA, SWIFT PRIME, DEFUSE 3 and DAWN studies. These studies, which have all been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, led to landmark changes in both intravenous and endovascular stroke therapy- substantially more stroke patients can now be successfully treated.

Dr. Albers completed his medical training with a neurology residency and cerebrovascular disease fellowship at Stanford. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1989, and the following year won the Lysia Forno Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2011, Dr. Albers received the American Heart Association’s prestigious David G. Sherman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Stroke Research. He has been named among the “Best Medical Specialists in North America – Cerebrovascular Disease” and the “Country’s Best Heart and Stroke Doctors” in national surveys of physicians and department chairs. Dr. Albers has authored more than 400 articles on topics related to cerebrovascular disease in peer-reviewed journals.