On July 10, a Sino-US neurosurgery academic exchange and visiting professorship appointment ceremony was held at the Jinjiang Campus of West China Hospital, Sichuan University (WCH). Professor Melanie Hayden Gephart from Stanford University and Professor Jason Haitao Huang from Baylor Scott & White Health were appointed as visiting professors of WCH. Professor Hu Jiankun, Vice President of WCH, attended the ceremony, along with representatives from the International Office. The ceremony was moderated by Professor Liu Yi from the Neurosurgery Department. 

Vice President Hu read the appointment documents and presented the visiting professor certificates to the two international experts. Both professors delivered speeches expressing their expectations for deepening future collaboration.

Professor Melanie Hayden Gephart is currently a Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the Stanford Brain Tumor Center. Her research focuses on mechanisms of brain metastasis, multi-omics translation, and cerebrospinal fluid molecular diagnostics. Professor Jason Haitao Huang serves as Chief of the Neurosurgery Department at Baylor Scott & White Health. He holds significant international influence in the fields of neurotrauma, neurorestoration, neural engineering, and clinical translation. The appointment of these two professors will inject strong momentum into WCH Neurosurgery's international collaboration in areas including neuro-oncology, brain metastasis, brain-computer interfaces, neuromodulation, and intelligent neurosurgery.

During the academic exchange session, Professor Liu Yanhui from WCH Neurosurgery presented the department's disciplinary structure and digitalization initiatives. Professor Gephart shared recent advances in CSF-seq technology and leptomeningeal disease research. Professor Huang delivered a forward-looking presentation on how innovation, intelligence, and technology are reshaping the future of neurosurgery. Associate Professor Liu Hao introduced the "T-shaped chopstick technique" – an innovative endoscopic transorbital approach for skull base tumor resection. Associate Professor Yang Yuan presented clinical research on brain-computer interfaces in eloquent area gliomas. Professor Li Peng provided a systematic overview of neuromodulation techniques in clinical practice. Following the presentations, Chinese and international experts engaged in in-depth discussions on these topics. The two visiting professors also toured the Jinjiang Campus wards, operating rooms, and the hospital history museum, gaining further insight into the clinical work and academic platform development of WCH Neurosurgery.

This event showcased academic achievements across multiple frontier areas in Sino-US neurosurgery. It laid a solid foundation for deepening collaboration in research, talent development, clinical translation, and international academic platform building, and holds significant importance for advancing the high-quality development of WCH Neurosurgery.