UB, Buffalo medical community mourn loss of renowned neurosurgeon 'Nick' Hopkins

L. Nelson “Nick” Hopkins, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Radiology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and a neurosurgeon best known for changing the way stroke patients are treated, died Oct. 5. He was 81.

“Dr. Hopkins profoundly impacted his field in so many ways — from innovating treatments and fostering partnerships that dramatically advanced research and clinical care, to training the next generation of highly skilled neurosurgeons. In improving health outcomes for people around the world, he made an indelible mark on his profession while bringing great distinction to the University at Buffalo,” said President Satish K. Tripathi.

“The passing of this exceptional scholar, clinician and mentor is a tremendous loss for our scholarly community, the Western New York region and the field of neurosurgery. I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to Nick’s family, his colleagues, his trainees and all the patients who benefited from his pioneering work.”

“Nick Hopkins was a beloved educator and mentor; a dedicated, compassionate neurosurgeon; and an innovative researcher who literally transformed the field of endovascular surgery,” said Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences and Jacobs School dean.

“He turned the UB Department of Neurosurgery into one of the nation’s leading departments of neurosurgery with residencies and fellowships that are now among the field’s most competitive,” Brashear added. “Through his rigorous mentorship, he has cultivated a generation of neurosurgeons who exhibit his thirst for innovation and for always trying to improve upon the current standard of care. He has had profound impacts on the Jacobs School community, on the creation of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and the city of Buffalo, and on the health of patients in Western New York and globally.”

Hopkins is perhaps best known as the neurosurgeon who dramatically changed how stroke patients are cared for. His innovation was to treat stroke patients with clot-busting drugs along with a wire mesh device that gave patients a much better chance of survival and returning to normal function.

In the 1990s, Hopkins and his colleagues had begun exploring how to use minimally invasive stroke treatments that take advantage of the body’s circulation system by threading micro-thin devices through an artery in the groin to reach blocked vessels in the brain, where they are then treated with stents.

The neurosurgical community was initially resistant, but Hopkins and his colleagues at UB and Kaleida Health forged ahead, in part inspired by the success cardiologists had seen using stents to treat coronary heart disease. In 2015, when the Hopkins team, led by Elad I. Levy, his protegee and now the L. Nelson Hopkins Endowed Chair of Neurosurgery at UB, published its successful clinical trial on the technique in the New England Journal of Medicine, Hopkins said: “We’re at the dawn of a new era in stroke.”

Hopkins’ legacy lives on in the many successful neurosurgeons he mentored, including Levy and Adnan Siddiqui, vice chair and professor of neurosurgery. He turned the Department of Neurosurgery’s fellowship into one of the most sought after in the field.

“Today the neurosurgical community mourns the loss of a giant who gifted the world the specialty of neuroendovascular surgery,” Levy said. “His legacy of disciples across the world continues to advance the field he started. But to me, he was a mentor, friend and second father who is deeply loved. My words cannot express the sadness we all feel today.”

Siddiqui said: “The world recognizes Nick’s academic, entrepreneurial and research contributions. But what they probably don’t recognize as readily is his profound humanity and humility, his unfaltering convictions, his love of music and his deep affection for both his biological and pedagogical progeny. To me, that was Nick: a kind and gentle giant of a benefactor to the community, neurosurgery and the world.”

Hopkins’ colleagues said his search for ways to improve medicine was relentless. He also took that approach to envisioning moving UB medical researchers downtown. It was Hopkins who worked with the architect of the Gates Vascular Institute/Clinical and Translational Research Center to create a building where clinicians and researchers would have “collisions” with each other, where the building’s very design would cause them to interact and collaborate. That vision, now a reality, has been responsible for many collaborations and successes that otherwise wouldn’t have taken place.

He worked with UB Council Chair Jeremy M. Jacobs, his wife Margaret and family to found the Jacobs Institute and honor Jacobs’ late brother, Lawrence D. Jacobs, a UB neurology professor and world-renowned medical pioneer. The Jacobs Institute is a vascular and neurologic medical device innovation center on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

Hopkins was a champion of the global approach to revascularization, dedicated to improving outcomes for patients with vascular disease.

“When Nick was working closely with my late brother, Larry Jacobs, Buffalo led the way in neurosurgery and neurology,” Jacobs said. “Their preeminent collaborations sparked the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus that we know today and established the University at Buffalo as a world-leader in medicine.

“Their combined talent was matched only by their compassion for patients and commitment to sharing expertise as widely as possible. People came from all over the world to learn from Nick and Larry, and their knowledge will live on through subsequent generations of physicians and researchers. The loss of Nick is very personal for me, and the medical community lost a true leader.”

For his lifetime of innovations and the revolutionary advancements he made to neurosurgery, Hopkins received virtually every major vascular award offered by neurosurgery internationally. Highlights included being named SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest academic rank in SUNY, and in 2019 he received the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, UB’s highest honor. In 2021, he won the Business First Business Leadership Hall of Fame award and in 2023 was awarded the Kaleida Health Lifetime Spirit Award for the second time. In 2023 he was also featured for the second time as Honored Guest of the Congress of Neurosurgery, where a full program honored his career with a Hopkins Symposium.

As a founding figure in endovascular treatment for neurovascular disorders, Hopkins redefined vascular neurosurgery in stroke management and lesion stenting. His innovations in endovascular surgery set the benchmark for therapeutic intervention, and he trained a new generation of neurosurgeons in catheter-based technology for minimally invasive surgery.

He served as chairman of the board of the GVI, president and CEO of the Jacobs Institute and its Center for Innovation in Medicine, and chief scientific officer of the JI.

Nationally, Hopkins served on the board of directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the executive committee of the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association.

He was the scientific and annual meeting chairman for both the AANS and Congress of Neurological Surgeons, former chairman of the Joint Section on Cerebrovascular Surgery, and president of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery. He was the principal investigator of several national clinical trials and authored more than 300 publications on stroke prevention and treatment.

A Buffalo native who attended the Nichols School, Hopkins completed his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University, and earned his medical degree cum laude from Albany Medical College. His postgraduate training included a surgical internship at Case Western Reserve, followed by neurosurgical training at UB.

Hopkins was also a gifted athlete and determined competitor. These characteristics carried over into everything he did. A hockey goalie at Nichols and at Rutgers, Hopkins picked up squash as an adult and played competitively throughout his career. He began skiing in his thirties and pushed himself to become a skier who could tackle any mountain from the Alps to his beloved Tetons. Summer weekends would find him on his road bike on the Canadian lakeshore outside of Buffalo. But none of these hobbies equaled his love of family, traveling the globe with his wife Bonnie, and encouraging the growth and curiosity of his son and daughters, and each of his eight grandchildren.