Prof. Dr. med. Amir Samii

Prof. Amir Samii graduated from Hannover Medical School in 1995 and completed his neurosurgical and neuroscientific training at the Department of Neurosurgery at Charité – Humboldt University in Berlin, the Brain Research Institute and Division of Neurosurgery at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Department of Neurosurgery at Nordstadt Hospital Hannover.

His scientific career had already begun during medical school with experimental research in traumatic brain injury. At the age of 31, he completed his Habilitation in Experimental Neurosurgery and received the Venia Legendi at Hannover Medical School, becoming Privatdozent and subsequently being appointed Professor of Neurosurgery at Hannover Medical School.

After obtaining board certification in neurosurgery, he joined his father, Prof. Madjid Samii, at the International Neuroscience Institute (INI) Hannover in 2003. There, he continued his clinical and scientific work with a particular focus on complex neurosurgery, skull base, brain tumor and cranial nerve surgery, as well as technology-assisted neurosurgery.

In 2008, Prof. Samii was appointed Vice President and Deputy Medical Director of the International Neuroscience Institute Hannover. In addition to his surgical work, he plays a major role in the medical and strategic development of the Institute.

Prof. Samii also serves as Executive Vice President of the China International Neuroscience Institute (China INI) in Beijing at Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University.

Surgical Expertise

Prof. Amir Samii specializes in complex microsurgical procedures of the brain, skull base, cranial nerves, spine, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. He has particular expertise in the treatment of highly complex brain tumors, including deep-seated tumors and lesions in functionally critical brain regions, as well as brainstem and skull base tumors. Preservation of neurological function is a central principle of his surgical approach.

Prof. Amir Samii received his microsurgical foundation from his father, Prof. Madjid Samii, whose school of skull base, brain tumor and cranial nerve surgery had a defining influence on his surgical development. Building on this foundation, he developed his own surgical expertise and combined classical microsurgery at an early stage with new imaging, functional and technological techniques.

Already in the 1990s, he was part of the pioneering generation of neuronavigation and introduced image-guided techniques into his neurosurgical practice at an early stage. From the 2000s onward, this evolved into the systematic integration of intraoperative imaging and subsequently advanced brain mapping, neurophysiological monitoring, endoscopy, fluorescence-guided surgery and innovative visualization techniques.

His surgical concept combines microsurgical anatomy and technique with state-of-the-art technology to achieve the highest possible level of precision and preservation of neurological function.

His surgical spectrum extends from complex cranial and skull base surgery to the entire spine from the craniovertebral junction to the sacrum. It includes surgery of spinal cord and spinal tumors, complex reconstructive procedures and minimally invasive spine surgery, as well as peripheral nerve surgery.

Scientific Profile

Prof. Samii’s scientific career began in 1992 with experimental research in traumatic brain injury, initially as part of his doctoral research. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, experimental traumatic brain injury and neuroprotection remained major areas of his scientific work and established the experimental foundation of his academic career. This work ultimately led to his Habilitation in Experimental Neurosurgery and the Venia Legendi at Hannover Medical School at the age of 31.

A further major focus of his scientific work has been the development and clinical integration of technologies for image-guided and function-preserving neurosurgery. His work encompasses neuronavigation, intraoperative imaging, brain mapping and neurophysiological monitoring, advanced visualization techniques, and the integration of emerging technologies into complex neurosurgical procedures.

Another major field of his scientific work is auditory rehabilitation and neuroprosthetics. Over many years, Prof. Samii has contributed to the development of surgical approaches and implantable technologies designed to restore auditory function at different levels of the auditory pathway. These include auditory midbrain, brainstem and auditory nerve interfaces, linking microsurgery, neuroscience, neurotechnology and functional rehabilitation.

Since 2014, Prof. Samii has been a Leibniz Fellow at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg. There, he heads the program “Intraoperative Mapping and Visualization of the Human Brain” and works at the interface of neurosurgery, functional imaging, brain mapping and basic neuroscience. The close integration of clinical neurosurgery and neuroscientific research provides an important foundation for the development of new approaches to function-preserving surgery and for the investigation of neuronal networks in the human brain.

His current scientific work continues this translational approach at the interface of neurosurgery, neurotechnology, functional restoration, advanced imaging and brain–computer interfaces, with the goal of translating technological innovation into clinically meaningful applications.

Prof. Samii is the author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has an h-index of 45 (Scopus). His scientific work has been cited several thousand times internationally.

In addition to his publication record, Prof. Samii has for many years been strongly committed to international neurosurgical education and training. Over the past 15 years, he has delivered more than 250 scientific and invited lectures at international congresses, symposia and educational meetings. A particular focus of this work has been the education and training of neurosurgeons and the international transfer of knowledge across Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Prof. Samii has been invited to numerous visiting professorships and academic teaching engagements at international neurosurgical centers. He has also been awarded an Honorary Professorship by the N. N. Burdenko National Medical Research Center for Neurosurgery in Moscow.

He is a member of various national, European and international neurosurgical societies and has held senior positions within the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) for many years. For more than eight years, he served as a member of the leadership body of the global federation of neurosurgical societies, assuming a number of positions of responsibility within the organization.

His clinical and scientific work therefore combines complex neurosurgery, technological innovation and translational neuroscience with international academic collaboration and the education of the next generation of neurosurgeons.