Alfredo Quińones- Hinojosa

Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa (also known as "Dr. Q") is a Mexican-American neurosurgeon, author, and researcher. He is the William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor and Chair of Neurologic Surgery and runs a basic science research lab at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville in Florida.

Quiñones is an editorial board member and reviewer for several publications. Most notably, he is the editor-in-chief for Schmidek and Sweet Operative Neurosurgical Techniques (6th edition). He is also one of the editors for Controversies in Neuro-Oncology: Best Evidence Medicine for Brain Tumor Surgery, which was awarded first prize by the British Medical Association. He is co-founder and serves as president of Mission: BRAIN, Bridging Resources and Advancing International Neurosurgery, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation.

He has published an autobiography, Becoming Dr. Q, about his journey from migrant farm worker to neurosurgeon, and recently Disney with Plan B Entertainment productions announced that his life story is going to be featured in a movie.

Early life Quiñones was born in Mexicali, Baja California, México. He became interested in medicinal practices at an early age which may been due to his younger sister death from colitis and his sense of responsibility that came early on in life. In 1987, at the age of 19, Quiñones-Hinojosa went to the United States. Once arriving in the United States, Quiñones could not speak English and worked on farms outside of Fresno, California. As a farm hand, he saved enough money to take English classes. He then went on to receive his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where he graduated with honors. He also became a US citizen during this time. He then completed his residency in neurosurgery at the University of California, San Francisco, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in developmental and stem cell biology at the laboratory of Professor Arturo Alvarez-Buylla.

Professional career Quiñones began his career at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he became a Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology, Neurology, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and director of the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Biology Lab. Quiñones conducts both clinical and basic science research. From 2005 to 2016, his team published over 150 scientific articles and received 14 funding grants. He has been actively involved in fundraisers for brain cancer research. He continues to participate at half-marathons with his research team and some of his own patients to raise money for cancer research.

Books Quiñones is the author of more than 50 book chapters, and has authored several textbooks on neurosurgical techniques and stem cell biology. In 2011, Quiñones edited Core Techniques in Operative Neurosurgery and published his autobiography, Becoming Dr Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon, which went on to earn him an International Latino Book Award in 2012. In 2012, Quiñones was the lead editor of the 6th edition of Schmidek and Sweet's Operative Neurosurgical Techniques, one of the world's preeminent textbooks of neurosurgery. He will also serve as the lead editor for the 7th edition of Schmidek and Sweet's Operative Neurosurgical Techniques. In 2013, Quiñones published Controversies in Neuro-Oncology: Best Evidence Medicine for Brain Tumor Surgery with Dr. Shaan Raza. The British Medical Association awarded Controversies in Neuro-Oncology first prize in Oncology in 2014. Quiñones is currently working on a first Video-Atlas of Neurosurgery that will be published in 2016.

Publications Among his published books, Quiñones also has a long list of publications, with his most notable article cited 1,856 times by fellow researchers. Some of his most cited and popular article publications, in descending order, include:

2010 Oxygen in stem cell biology: a critical component of the stem cell niche 1991 San Joaquin Delta Community College, Stockton, California - Transfer core curriculum to the University of California 2007 Baltimore Magazine - US Top Docs 2008 Olender Foundation - America's Role Model Award 2010 Science & Engineering Festival - Nifty Fifty Scientist 2011 Baltimore Magazine - Baltimore Top Docs 2012 Named as Super Doctor 2012 Recipient of Ohtli Award 2015 VII Premio Iberoamericano Cortes de Cádiz Surgery Award, Spain 2015 Forbes, World's Most Creative Mexicans 2018 Doctorate honoris cause, by University of Santander - UDES - Bucaramanga, COLOMBIA

Television Dr Q’s story was featured in ‘Hopkins’. Quiñones stars in the second episode of The Surgeon's Cut, produced by BBC Studios’ The Science Unit for Netflix which was released globally on 9 December 2020.

In the Immigration episode of Adam Ruins Everything, Quiñones-Hinojosa's name and picture (wearing a hat that says "Dr. Q" on it,) is featured in a lineup of some of the Mexican-American immigrants who have improved the United States.