Printable Biography of Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is senior medical correspondent for the health and medical unit at CNN. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and an assistant professor of neurosurgery, plays an integral role in the network’s medical coverage, which includes daily packages, the half-hour weekend show House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and coverage of breaking medical news. Based in Atlanta, he also co-hosts Accent Health for Turner Private Networks, provides medical segments for the syndicated version of ER on TNT, contributes health news stories to CNN.com and writes a column for TIME magazine.

Gupta joined CNN in the summer of 2001 and became part of the network team covering the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City. Breaking news about anthrax and its deadly effects highlighted Gupta’s coverage.

In 2003, Gupta spent time in Iraq and Kuwait, reporting on various medical aspects of escalating tension with Iraq. During the war in Iraq, Gupta reported as an embedded correspondent with the U.S. Navy’s medical unit, the “Devil Docs.” He provided viewers with exclusive reports from points along the unit’s travel to Baghdad and provided live coverage from a desert operating room of the first operation performed during the war. Gupta also performed brain surgery five times. Additionally, Gupta’s coverage appeared in a one-hour CNN Presents documentary, and he will serve as executive producer on an upcoming TNT original movie in development about the unit.

Besides his battlefield medicine coverage, Gupta also reported from Kuwait immediately after a low-flying missile hit a Kuwaiti shopping mall.

In 2004, he traveled to the international AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand, where he reported on the pandemic for CNN/U.S., CNN International and CNN Headline News. In December 2004, Gupta was sent to Sri Lanka to cover the disaster and aftermath of the tsunami that took more than 155,000 lives in South Asia.

He also introduced “New You Resolution,” the first installment of prime-time, health-related specials Gupta produces for the network. Following “New You Resolution,” he anchored “Life Beyond Limits,” which explored individuals who push their bodies to extremes. Gupta’s subsequent specials “The First Patient: Health and the Presidency” and “Are You Positive?” addressed presidential health and AIDS. His next special in 2005 will look at memory.

In addition to his work for CNN, Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty of the department of neurosurgery at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and performs surgery weekly at Emory University Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital, where he serves as chief of neurosurgery.

Before joining CNN, Gupta was a neurosurgeon at the University of Tennessee’s Semmes-Murphy clinic, and before that, the University of Michigan Medical Center. He became partner of the Great Lakes Brain and Spine Institute in 2000 and in 1997, he was chosen as a White House Fellow, one of only 15 fellows appointed. He served as special advisor to the first lady.

Gupta has been published in a variety of scientific journals and has received numerous accolades, including a National Headliner Award this year for “The First Patient.” In 2003, he was named one of PEOPLE magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” and a “pop culture icon” by USA Today. In 2004, the Atlanta Press Club named him “Journalist of the Year.” He has won the Humanitarian Award from the National Press Photographers Association, a GOLD Award from the National Health Care Communicators and a finalist honor for the International Health and Medical Media award known as the “Freddie.”

He is a member of several organizations, including the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Do Something Foundation, Healing the Children Foundation, the Council of Foreign Relations and the Brain Foundation. Gupta is also a certified medical investigator.

Gupta received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a doctorate of medicine from the University of Michigan Medical Center.

Most Requested Topics:

• Medicine and Media: Named a "pop culture icon" by USA Today, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is perhaps the most media-savvy physician working today. Gupta is a broadcaster, writer, podcaster,and web-contributor, all of which places him in a unique position to examine why certain health-related stories make the headlines, while others don't. In this presentation, he also takes a hard look at the media's role in conveying sometimes frightening information, such as his post-9/11 reports on anthrax.

• The Latest in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS: In 2004, on assignment for CNN International, Gupta traveled to the international AIDS conference in Bangkok. A lot has happened since then, and in this presentation Gupta discusses the latest breakthroughs in our ongoing fight against HIV/AIDS, at home and abroad. He presents the latest in medical science, but also gives us the human side of the struggle, bringing us the stories of both those who suffer from the disease, as well those helping to treat the infected. Gupta then examines the politics that are serving to advance, and sometimes stifle, the cause of HIV/AIDS awareness.

• Obesity in America: Dr. Sanjay Gupta's concern about the gradual decline of health in average Americans due to obesity inspired him to launch the highly successful Fit Nation on CNN. Starting as a one-hour special, Fit Nation has been expanded into one of America's most successful grass roots initiatives against obesity. In this presentation, Gupta traces the social and health-related factors that contribute to the fattening of America, and then explains how we might, and why we must, reverse this unhealthy trend, especially in children.

• Medicine in Times of War and Disaster: Having reported from the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and a post-9/11 New York City, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been present at some of the key moments that have shaped who we are. In this presentation, Gupta shares with audiences his first-hand experience on the dangers and importance of reporting from locations where the health of thousands is at stake. Gupta contributed to CNN's award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina and filed reports from Kuwait immediately after a low-flying missile hit a shopping mall there. He was also in Iraq, serving for CNN as an embedded correspondent with the U.S. Navy's medical unit, the "Devil Docs."