Aria Fallah, MD, MS, MBA

Dr. Aria Fallah is a renowned epilepsy surgeon recognized as one of the leading neurosurgeons in the United States and Southern California. He is distinguished for his rare dual expertise in both pediatric and adult epilepsy surgery, a field in which he maintains one of the busiest and most comprehensive surgical practices in the nation.

At UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center and Mattel Children’s Hospital, Dr. Fallah serves as the Director of Epilepsy Surgery, a nationally recognized NAEC Level-4 epilepsy center. He holds the Dr. Alfonsina Q. Davies Endowed Chair in Epilepsy Research in honor of Paul Crandall, M.D., a pioneer of modern epilepsy surgery. He is also an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Dr. Fallah has performed over 1,000 epilepsy surgeries, with outcomes on par with the best centers in the country for both children and adults with medically intractable epilepsy. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in hemispherectomy and hemispherotomy for catastrophic pediatric epilepsy, and was one of the earliest adopters of corpus callosotomy in the United States for infants with infantile spasms. His practice also encompasses neuromodulation therapies, including responsive neural stimulation (RNS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), as well as minimally invasive techniques such as robotic-assisted stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) and MRI-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT). He was the first neurosurgeon in the United States to implant thalamic responsive neurostimulation electrodes for epilepsy, a milestone that has expanded treatment options for patients with otherwise untreatable seizures.

Dr. Fallah has authored over 170 peer-reviewed publications, many in leading epilepsy and neurosurgical journals, with highly cited contributions on surgical outcomes, minimally invasive innovations, and translational neuroscience. He collaborates with both basic and clinical scientists, leveraging human brain tissue biobanking, electrophysiology, and advanced imaging to push the frontiers of epilepsy treatment.

Dr. Fallah speaks regularly at major international epilepsy and neurosurgery conferences and is recognized as a key opinion leader in the field. His research has been incorporated into evidence-based standards that guide epilepsy surgery worldwide, and his surgical expertise has been pivotal in advancing UCLA’s Pediatric Epilepsy Program into one of the most comprehensive and innovative centers in North America.

Dr. Fallah has performed complex epilepsy surgeries in resource-limited settings and helped establish epilepsy surgery programs in India and China. He has volunteered neurosurgical care in Haiti and has performed landmark cases such as the youngest hemispherotomy in Chile and one of the smallest infants treated surgically in the United States.

Dr. Fallah earned his MD and MSc in Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics from McMaster University. He completed neurosurgical residency at the University of Toronto, including training at the renowned Hospital for Sick Children, and epilepsy surgery fellowships at the Cleveland Clinic and Toronto Western Hospital. He then completed a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Miami Children’s Hospital. Most recently, he obtained his Executive MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, strengthening his broader vision for healthcare leadership and innovation