DAVIDOFF, LEO MAX

DAVIDOFF, LEO MAX (1898–1975), U.S. neurosurgeon. Davidoff was born in Talsen, Latvia, and was taken to the United States in 1905. After his medical training he served as surgeon to the Byrd-Macmillan Arctic expedition of 1925. He headed the department of neurological surgery at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn (1937–45), the Montefiore Hospital (1945–49), and the Beth Israel Hospital (1949–54). From 1951 to 1956 he was neurosurgeon at the Mount Sinai Hospital and from 1954 to 1966 was director of neurological surgery at the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. His academic appointments included the clinical professorship of neurological surgery at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons (1945–49) and the New York University College of Medicine (1949–54). In 1954 he began his association with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, where he served as professor and chairman of the department of surgery (1954–58) and neurological surgery (1959–66). He was associate dean of the college from 1961 to 1966. Davidoff was chairman of a number of medical training missions for the World Health Organization. He was a member of the medical advisory board of the hadassah organization and of the board of directors of the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was president of the Society of Neurological Surgeons (1951) and the Harvey Cushing Society (1957). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rudolf Virchow Medical Society, Proceedings, 26, suppl. (1968), 1–39. (Fred Rosner)