Our Residents

PGY-7

Derek George, MD

Derek D. George is a PGY-6 resident in neurosurgery. He was born and raised in Colorado and attended the University of Colorado School of Medicine. While at CU, Derek engaged in research on the subjective experience of fatigue in Parkinson Disease and on the use of SEEG in the work-up of surgical epilepsy. His current clinical and research interests are in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery. In his free time, Derek enjoys climbing (rock and ice), functional fitness, and playing with his cat Calli. The University of Rochester Neurosurgery program was an easy choice for him given the high clinical volume, broad clinical exposure, and the tight-knit resident comradery.

Taylor Furst, MD

Taylor Furst is a PGY-7 resident in neurosurgery. He is from Moravia, NY. Taylor graduated from the University at Buffalo in 2016 summa cum laude and as a University Honors Scholar with a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science and a minor in Pharmacology and Toxicology. While at UB, he performed research in human nutrition and athletic performance. He also played club ice hockey, winning a national championship in his Junior year. Subsequently, Taylor attended medical school at Upstate Medical University where he graduated cum laude in 2020. During medical school, he published outcomes-based research in a variety of neurosurgical topics and was elected into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He is the recipient of the Robert Eich AOA Endowment and the Gustave P. Milkey Scholarship for being the academic leader following his first and second year, respectively. Highlighting his time in medical school was his cultural emersion trip to El Sauce, Nicaragua as well as playing ice hockey for his local men’s league. Taylor is completing an enfolded fellowship in endovascular neurosurgery during his PGY-7 year then heading to Washington University in St. Louis, MO to complete a complex spine fellowship with a focus in spinal deformity and oncology. In his spare time, he enjoys playing and watching sports, time on the water, working out and spending quality time with his wife, Alyssa, two sons, and their dog, Layla. 

PGY-6

Catherine Jay, MD

Catherine Jay is a PGY-5 resident in Neurosurgery.  She is a Toronto native, but grew up internationally in Guangzhou (China), Geneva (Switzerland), and Cincinnati (USA). Catherine entered the University of Rochester as a Rochester Early Medical Scholar (BS/MD dual degree program) and majored in Brain and Cognitive Science with a Chinese Health and Society minor. During her undergraduate years she was honored to earn the Chinese Language Award, join Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, and graduate summa cum laude. In medical school she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, elected for the Gold Humanism Honor Society, and completed both the Medical Education and Global Health pathways. She has dual passions in medical education and international collaboration, engaging longitudinally through her tenure in Rochester in multidisciplinary research to improve outcomes for children with neuromuscular disease in China and creating an anti-bias curriculum for medical school faculty. In her free time, she can be found reading, exploring Rochester parks with her dogs, volunteering at a therapeutic horse-riding lesson, or taking backcountry canoe trips with her fiancé.

Prasanth Romiyo, MD

Prasanth Romiyo is a Philadelphia native and Cooper Medical School graduate who earned a distinction in research before matching into neurosurgery. During medical school, his work in the Yang Lab at UCLA was recognized with funding from the AOA, NREF, and AANS. In residency, he has applied that same curiosity to clinically grounded efforts collaborating with the University of Rochester Motion Analysis Lab to develop wearable sensor technology for earlier detection of cervical myelopathy, with the hope of screening patients before spinal cord injury occurs. He is training across the full spectrum of neurosurgery, including cranial, spine, and peripheral nerve cases, and intends to carry that breadth into practice. Outside the hospital, he stays active through HIIT training, enjoys gardening, and is grounded by time with his wife and daughter. 

PGY-5

Adam Li, MD

Adam Li is a PGY-4 resident in neurosurgery. He grew up in Massachusetts, received his bachelor’s degree from Boston College, and conducted undergraduate research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His research focused on identifying new selective inhibitors targeting cancers with defective DNA repair mechanisms. Adam then attended medical school at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. There, he conducted research on factors affecting pediatric sports concussion incidence, severity, and recovery. He also served as a volunteer science teacher for students ranging from elementary to high school across New York City. His neurosurgical interests include pediatrics and neuro-oncology. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, skiing, playing guitar, and spending time with his cat.

Racquel Whyte, MD

Racquel Whyte is a PGY-4 resident in neurosurgery. Racquel was born and raised in Jamaica. She came to the U.S. after receiving a full academic scholarship to attend Claflin University, a historically Black college & university (HBCU) in South Carolina. She graduated summa cum laude and class valedictorian with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and minors in Mathematics and Biology. After working in the Chemistry department at Claflin for a year, she received her master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from Barry University in Florida. She worked in Education for several years before attending medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. There, she was heavily involved in education and mentorship through URMC Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and served as the National SNMA Neurology/Neurosurgery Special Interest Group Liaison. Racquel successfully completed the Medical Education Pathway, Deaf Health Pathway and received NIH-funding for the Academic Research Track, where she spent a year conducting several clinical and basic science neurosurgical research projects. She was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, awarded the Jules Cohen Award for Advancing Medical Education, and graduated with a distinction in research. Racquel enjoys reading, playing netball, cheering on her favorite sports teams, traveling and visiting family and friends.

PGY-4

Rohin Singh, MD

Rohin Singh is a PGY-3 resident in neurosurgery. He is a Phoenix native and attended the University of Arizona where he triple majored in Neuroscience, Physiology, and Molecular Biology. He went to medical school at Mayo Clinic Arizona where he served as the president of both the Mission:Brain non-profit and AANS student chapter. During medical school he received the Uihlein Research scholarship for his work on outcomes-based research in epilepsy surgery, as well as the Alpha Omega Alpha Service Leadership Grant for his initiative on reducing medical waste in the operating room. He has published extensively across different neurosurgical topics from clinical papers on vascular, functional and spine to socioeconomic and surgical education pieces. His interests in neurosurgery are broad and include functional/stereotactic and minimally invasive spine. He enjoys high intensity workouts, music festivals, and time with his wife, who is an internal medicine resident at University of Rochester.  

Stephen Susa, MD

Stephen Susa is a PGY-3 resident in Neurosurgery. Stephen is a native of Columbus, OH. He went to college at the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in Neuroscience and Psychology. While in college, he conducted research on spinal cord stimulators and outcomes after pediatric neurological malignancies. He attended medical school at the University of Rochester, where his research focuses included aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and ischemic stroke. In particular, he has dedicated much of his time to a trial of lumbar compared to ventricular CSF drainage after aneurysm rupture. Stephen is also interested in the socioeconomic aspects of neurosurgery, including opioid stewardship and workplace violence. He was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society at the end of medical school. Stephen is currently undecided on subspecialty, but is excited to explore opportunities in cerebrovascular, tumor, and skull base neurosurgery while in residency. When not at the hospital, he enjoys reading, hiking, cooking, playing chess, and spending time with his girlfriend Junny.

PGY-3

Karolina Pellot, MD

Karolina I. Pellot Ortiz is a dedicated PGY-2 neurosurgery resident known for her strong academic background. She earned her Doctor of Medicine from Ponce Health Sciences University in Ponce, Puerto Rico, where she cultivated her passion for neurosurgery. Dr. Pellot Ortiz has an impressive portfolio of research and publications. She has co-authored several significant papers, including studies on MDM2 inhibition in glioblastoma, LGBTQ+ diversity in neurosurgery, and CAR T-cell therapies for brain tumors, published in respected journals such as Biomedicines, Journal of Neurosurgery, and Brain Research Bulletin. Fluent in Spanish and English, Dr. Pellot Ortiz excels in patient communication and care. Her hobbies include reading, writing, and painting which provide a balanced and well-rounded approach to her demanding medical career.

Keshov Sharma, MD, PhD

Keshov K. Sharma is a PGY-2 resident in Neurosurgery. The only child of Indian immigrants, Keshov was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. He attended Duke University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), where he majored in Neuroscience and minored in Religion and Chemistry. At Duke, Keshov conducted research into novel molecular therapeutics for temporal lobe epilepsy in the lab of James McNamara, MD. He then joined the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at University of Rochester and conducted his dissertation research in neuroscience under the direction of Julie Fudge, MD and Lizabeth Romanski, PhD. His thesis, entitled "Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuits Implicated in Expression Perception", increased the field's understanding of the anatomical projections and neural encoding of naturalistic, emotional expressions through analysis of pathologic specimens and recording of single neuron activity in awake behaving macaques. Keshov was awarded an NIH F30 to support his dissertation research and published portions of his thesis in Cerebral Cortex and The Journal of Neuroscience. Currently, he is planning on pursuing a career in Functional Neurosurgery with a research focus on developing stimulators and assistive devices that dynamically adapt to realtime neural information. Keshov is blessed to have wonderful and supportive wife, Cait, and the two of them enjoy going to the Little Theater, working out at the Schottland YMCA, and taking their dogs to various dog parks in Rochester.

PGY-2

Sajal Akkipeddi, MD

Sajal Akkipeddi is a PGY-1 resident in Neurosurgery. He was born in India and grew up with his parents and sister in Framingham, MA. He majored in Biology at Swarthmore College in PA, where he researched non-coding RNAs in cancer cell lines. He attended medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where his research focus was primarily on acute ischemic stroke. He received the Rusyniak Fellowship from the department for a research year in medical school, during which he published extensively on the stroke thrombus proteome and the implications of composition on stroke therapy and functional outcome. He is very interested in medical education and worked to integrate several didactics on caring for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities into the medical school curriculum. As a fourth-year medical student, Sajal was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He is currently interested in cerebrovascular neurosurgery but is excited to explore the breadth of neurosurgery in his residency. Outside of the hospital, Sajal loves his cat (Walter), good books, playing guitar, and spending time with family and his partner, Lyvia.

Huy Dang, MD

Huy Dang is a PGY-1 resident in Neurosurgery. He was born in Vietnam and raised in Houston. He attended Dartmouth College, where he majored in Neuroscience. He then returned to Houston for medical school at Baylor College of Medicine where he took a research year to study the application of neuromodulation for diseases like depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. While his main research interest is in expanding neurosurgical treatments for psychiatric diseases, he is also interested in using intracranial data to learn more about basic neuroscience processes like cognition, imagination, and decision-making. Huy is currently pursuing a career in Functional Neurosurgery with enfolded interests in peripheral nerve and spinal stimulation. Outside of neurosurgery, he enjoys reading, drawing, cooking, and walking his dog, Momo.

PGY-1

Martin Green, M.D.

Martin Green is a PGY-1 resident in neurosurgery. He is from Baltimore, Maryland and was raised in Cary, North Carolina. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to medical school, he worked on artificial intelligence-based ambient clinical documentation tools at Nuance Communications before joining IBM Watson Health. He earned his medical degree from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. During medical school, his research interests focused on the early diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative and movement disorders, including published work on the use of focused ultrasound for movement disorders. Driven by a strong interest in mentoring, he served as a chartering member and vice president of the neurosurgery interest group and continues to serve as a mentor for premed and medical students. Alongside his academic and clinical commitments, he also extended this passion for mentorship into the community by coaching youth soccer and basketball. His current clinical interests in neurosurgery include minimally invasive spine surgery and neurotrauma. Outside of the hospital, Martin enjoys hiking, playing guitar, reading, and spending time with his wife and their cat.

M. Ibrahim Jalal, M.D.

Ibrahim Jalal is a PGY-1 resident in neurosurgery. He is from Horseheads, NY. Ibrahim graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022, summa cum laude, with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry. While at Penn, he performed research in liver disease, was a lead EMT, and served as a high school mentor. Subsequently, Ibrahim attended the University of Rochester for medical school where he led research on 3D printed surgical training models, durotomy repair, and the University of Rochester’s Mobile Stroke Unit. He was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and was the recipient of the University of Rochester Presidential Changemaker Award, the AOA Medical Student Service Leadership Grant, and the Constanza Community Impact Award, for his efforts in community service relating to high school outreach, education, and mentorship, helping to co-found both the ACT FAST and Meliora Educational Pathway Programs. He is interested in Spine surgery and surgical innovation. When not at work, he enjoys spending time with his friends and family, weightlifting, and trying new restaurants.