GRIFFITH R. HARSH IV was born in 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri, as his father was completing Neurosurgery Residency at Barnes Hospital. Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, he was graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he began medical school and from which he received an M.A. degree in Physiology (Neurosciences).

After finishing medical school at the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Harsh completed neurosurgery residency and fellowship training in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Brain Tumor Research Center of the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Harsh was awarded the Research Fellowship of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons for study of oncogenic growth factors in brain tumors and, as Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF, was appointed Visiting Scientist in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Following a Visiting Fellowship in Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Skull Base Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, he was appointed Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. There, he served as Executive Director of the Brain Tumor Center and investigated gene therapy and proton radiosurgery and radiotherapy for brain tumors.

In 1998, Dr. Harsh was appointed Professor of Neurological Surgery at Stanford Medical School and Hospitals. There he served as Associate Dean for Post-Graduate Education, Director of the Stanford Brain Tumor Center, and Program Director of the Neurosurgery Residency. His laboratory research at Stanford focused on molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis and their therapeutic disruption.

In 2018, Dr,. Harsh was appointed Julian R. Youmans Endowed Chair and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, Davis. His primary clinical focus is surgical and radiosurgical treatment of tumors of the brain, pituitary, and skull base.

Dr. Harsh has served national neurosurgery as Chair of the Residency Review Committee for Neurological Surgery, President of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, President of the Neurosurgical Society of America, Vice President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, and Chair of the Neurosurgery and Research Fellowship Program of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

Dr. Harsh and his wife, Meg Whitman, a business executive, have two sons, both of whom are are involved in real estate development and philanthropy.