On March 18, Yale Neurosurgery was pleased to announce the addition of Joseph Haynes, MD, and Shashank Rajkumar, MD, as the newest residents to join the Yale Neurosurgery Residency Program. The department extends our sincerest congratulations, and we look forward to continuing our commitment to education as we welcome these new residents.

The Neurosurgery Residency Program, led by Program Director Michael DiLuna, MD, and Associate Program Director Joseph King, Jr., MD, MSCE, is a 7-year program that provides training to the best and brightest physicians to achieve confidence and success in all neurosurgical domains. Residents in our program benefit from early OR experience, two years of protected academic time, and nearly all recent graduates have gone on to take highly competitive fellowships or academic positions.

Joseph Haynes, MD, was born and raised in Guyana, South America, and completed high school in Barbados, WI. While growing up in Guyana, Dr. Haynes met many people with brain tumors who couldn’t receive care since there were no neurosurgeons in the country, which sparked his interest in the field. Dr. Haynes received his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience & Biology from City University New York (CUNY) Queens College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He received his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. His academic interests include neurovascular surgery and global neurosurgery. He chose Yale Neurosurgery for the camaraderie of the neurosurgical team, wealth of educational opportunities, and strength in clinical education and experience.

Shashank Rajkumar, MD, was born in Bangalore, India, and grew up across Australia, Japan, Singapore, the UK, and the US. Traveling across the world from a young age, Dr. Rajkumar developed a passion for meeting people and hearing their stories. These experiences shaped a large part of Dr. Rajkumar’s identity and influenced his decision to practice medicine. In a family of accountants, Dr. Rajkumar was the odd one out for his passion for science. He studied chemistry at Duke University and eventually combined his love for science with his desire to help people by staying for medical school. During an elective rotation, he fell in love with neurosurgery and met many neurosurgeons who exhibited the kindness, humility and work ethic that he wanted to embody as a physician. Dr. Rajkumar chose to continue his training at Yale Neurosurgery because of the tight-knit community and research resources available at Yale.