Dr. Adelson is the Director of the Children's Neuroscience Institute and Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Phoenix Children's Hospital in Phoenix, AZ. He was recently named Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery and Pediatric Neuroscience for Barrow Neurological Institute. He is on the faculty at Arizona State University and The University of Arizona - College of Medicine - Phoenix. Dr. Adelson was previously the A. Leland Albright Professor of Neurosurgery/ Pediatric Neurosurgery and vice chairman for research for the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. He was also the Director of the Center for Injury Research and Control (CIRCL) and Pediatric Neurotrauma.

Dr. Adelson received his B.A. and MD from Columbia University and completed the neurosurgical residency program at UCLA in 1993. He then pursued a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Hospital of Boston and Harvard Medical School, finishing in 1994. He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in neural recovery and plasticity in children, for which he has both active basic science laboratory and clinical research programs. His more recent work has been in the areas of biosignatures for neurological disease and brain computer interface, developing new technologies for the severely disabled.

He has been named among The Best Doctors in America and has received numerous awards including the Brain Injury Association Young Investigator Award and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Clinical Investigation Award. He has authored more than 140 publications in refereed journals and 36 book chapters. He has edited eight books.