Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.

Speaker

Principal Speaker

Benjamin S. Carson, MD

An internationally renowned physician, Dr. Benjamin Carson is professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was appointed director of pediatric neurosurgery at the age of 32 and is also the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center.

Dr. Carson’s personal story is inspiring. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother dropped out of school in the third grade and married when she was only 13. When Dr. Carson was eight, his parents divorced, and Mrs. Carson was left to raise Benjamin and his older brother on her own. She worked at two, sometimes three, jobs at a time to provide for them. The children fell behind in school – in the fifth grade, Benjamin was at the bottom of his class.

When Mrs. Carson saw her sons’ failing grades, she sharply limited the boys’ television watching and refused to let them outside to play until they had finished their homework each day. She required them to read two library books a week and to give her written reports on their reading, even though with her own poor education, she could barely read what they had written. Within a few weeks, Benjamin astonished his classmates by identifying rock samples his teacher had brought to class. He recognized them from one of the books he had read. “It was at that moment that I realized I wasn’t stupid,” he recalled later. Benjamin continued to amaze his classmates with his newfound knowledge and within a year he was at the top of his class.

Dr. Carson majored in psychology at Yale and graduated from the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He went on to complete both his internship in general surgery and residency in neurological surgery at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. In addition, he served as senior registrar in neurosurgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Center in Western Australia. In 1987, Carson made medical history with an operation to separate conjoined twins.

In 2008, Dr. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.