Dr. Charlie Teo
Prof. Teo was, and remains, instrumental in the development, dissemination and acceptance of the concept of keyhole minimally invasive techniques in neurosurgery. He runs a fellowship program that attracts over 600 applicants yearly and has trained many of the world’s leading figures in neurosurgery at distinguished centres such as the Karolinska and Barrow Neurological Institutes and Johns Hopkins, Yale, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Harvard Universities. He is recognised as a global neurosurgeon who has had academic appointments in Australia, Singapore, USA, Vietnam, Europe and India. Dr Teo has over 170 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has authored two books on keyhole approaches to brain tumours and is a guest editor for several journals. He is the Australian representative on the Tumour Section of the AANS and CNS. Prof. Teo strongly believes that a surgeon’s responsibility to his patients does not end after surgery. In keeping with his desire to find treatments and a cure for brain cancer he has raised over $50 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. Charlie dedicates 3 months every year to pro bono work in developing countries, for which he has been recognised with awards from Rotary International, including the Paul Harris Fellowship (for contribution to World Health), and as a finalist in the NSW Australian of the Year awards in 2003 and 2009. In the 2011 Australia Day awards he was named as a Member of the Order of Australia (for contribution to the development of minimally invasive neurosurgery). In 2012 he was invited to give the Australia Day Address to the Nation and in 2013 was honoured to be the first non-politician Australian to address the US Congress on the need for more funding for brain cancer research. His profile in Australia is such that for the last 7 years Professor Teo has been voted Australia's Most Trusted Person.
Over the last few years, Professor Teo has used his innovative mind to develop and nurture several game-changing companies. Omniscient Neuro-technologies is a data software company that has technology that provides a patient-specific structural and functional map of the brain through connectomics. It won Most Innovative AI/ML company in the World at the 2022 SBSW Awards. Cingulum Health is a clinic dedicated to brain health and fitness using scientific rigour, an holistic approach and transcranial magnetic stimulation. The Teo Institute in Blacktown is his dream of creating a patient-centric, world class centre of excellence attracting patients from around the globe and offering the highest standard of care.
Charlie is a father to four fiercely independent and extremely capable daughters and supports the rights of girls and young women in impoverished countries such as Cambodia and India through various charities including his own Teo Family Foundation. He is a Patron for Voiceless, an Australian based charity that is dedicated to reducing cruelty to industry animals, a Director of Zambi Wildlife Sanctuary that gives a forever home to discarded wild animals and an Ambassador for CCT (Cambodian Children's Trust) which supports orphaned and impoverished children to secure an education and vocational skills for independent living.
