Dr. Stephen Haines – former chairman of neurological surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina – will head the Department of Neurosurgery the University announced Thursday.

University Medical School Dean Deborah Powell said Haines’ administrative experience and academic qualifications made him the ideal candidate.

“Of all of the finalists, he is the only one who is currently a sitting department head at another institution,” Powell said.

Haines has been chairman of neurological surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina since 1997 and co-director of the Neuroscience Institute since 1999.

Before that, Haines headed the division of pediatric neurosurgery at MUSC.

Powell said Haines’ work to foster more interaction between neurology, neurosurgery and all the different fields of neuroscience at South Carolina will help him with similar efforts at the University.

“That is very important to us,” she said.