Griffith R. Harsh

Griffith Rutherford Harsh IV (born July 25, 1953) is an American neurosurgeon married to Meg Whitman. He is a direct descendent of Revolutionary War General and North Carolina State Senator Griffith Rutherford (1721-1805).

Griffith Rutherford Harsh IV was born in St. Louis in 1953. The son of his namesake, Griffith Harsh III, the younger Griff became determined to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a neurosurgeon.

Harsh graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University and became a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. At Oxford, he obtained a master’s degree in neurological sciences. After his two years at Oxford, he enrolled at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1980. He moved on to complete his residency and fellowship training in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Brain Tumor Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

Griffith Harsh IV graduated from Harvard College in 1975 and Harvard Medical School in 1980. He completed his residency at the Department of Neurosurgery and the Brain Tumor Research Center at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) in 1986. The following year he completed his fellowship in neurosurgery at UCSF. In addition, Griff Harsh completed a fellowship in clinical neuro-oncology at UCSF and another fellowship in skull base surgery and acoustic neuromas at the University of Pittsburgh. During his career, Harsh has focused on the surgical and radiation treatment of pituitary adenomas, glial tumors, and acoustic neuromas. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, the Director of the Stanford Brain Tumor Center and as Associate Dean of CME Education at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Stanford University Medical Center and Program Director of Neurosurgery Residency at Stanford. He is certified in neurological surgery by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.

Neurosurgical advancements

Harsh has been credited with the creation of a device that assists in aggressive intratumoral radiation. In 2001, Stanford released news of this device and preliminary studies indicated that the risks associated with radiation therapy for brain tumors are noticeably lower when using this device. Approved by the FDA, the device was tested in a study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the Stanford Brain Tumor Center currently uses it in patients with newly diagnosed or recurring primary or metastatic brain tumors.

Harsh has published over 100 clinical and scientific articles, including several identifying key pathways in brain tumorigenesis, appearing in PNAS, Science, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Harsh is married to Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay and current CEO of Hewlett-Packard. In 2010, Meg Whitman ran for Governor of California with the support of her husband. He currently resides in Atherton, California.