Charlie Teo is truly a global neurosurgeon. In demand across all continents for his willingness to offer surgery to those who have been given no hope, he has had appointments in Australia, the USA, India, Vietnam and Singapore.
As passionate about teaching as performing surgery, Charlie has been awarded Best Teacher awards in both the USA and Australia and devotes 3 months of every year instructing and doing live surgery pro bono in developing countries. He established a fellowship program that attracts over 600 applicants every year and has taught and mentored neurosurgeons from many of the leading universities world-wide such as Karolinska, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Duke, Yale and Harvard Universities and the Barrow Neurological Institute.
Prof. Teo strongly believes that a surgeon’s responsibility to his patients shouldn’t end after surgery. In keeping with his desire to find a cure for brain cancer he has raised over $51 million that has been used to fund research scientists both in Australia and abroad. He has done this through the Cure for Life Foundation, the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation (Charity of the Year 2016) and currently the Charlie Teo Foundation.
His efforts were recognised in 2011 when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his pioneering efforts in the development of minimally invasive techniques in neurosurgery, in 2012 when he was invited to give the Australia Day Address to the Nation and in 2013 when he was the first non-politician Australian to address the US Congress on the need for more funding for brain cancer research. Incidentally, Prof. Teo was named the Most Trusted Person in Australia for 7 consecutive years.