Taylor J. Abel, MD

Taylor Abel, MD, is chief of pediatric neurosurgery and surgical director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Program at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. He is an American Board of Neurological Surgery and American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery certified pediatric neurosurgeon specializing in epilepsy surgery. 

Dr. Abel is from Seattle, Washington and completed his undergraduate and medical education at the University of Washington. After his medical education in Seattle, Dr. Abel completed neurosurgery residency at the University of Iowa, where he received specialized training in epilepsy surgery and brain mapping techniques. At Iowa, Dr. Abel completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship—receiving the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award—focusing on electrophysiologic mechanisms of face and voice identification in the temporal lobe. Dr. Abel subsequently completed subspecialty fellowship training in both pediatric neurosurgery (Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto) and epilepsy surgery (Grenoble, France). 

Dr. Abel’s clinical practice focuses on caring for children drug-resistant epilepsy and general pediatric neurosurgery. He founded and co-directs the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Multi-Disciplinary Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Clinic, which focuses on providing comprehensive care to children with drug-resistant epilepsy. He performs traditional open epilepsy surgery, stereotactic and minimally invasive epilepsy surgery, and all forms of neuromodulation.

Dr. Abel is chair of the American Epilepsy Society membership council and serves on the board of directors for both the American Epilepsy Society (ex-officio) and Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Alliance.

Dr. Abel's publications can be reviewed through the National Library of Medicine's publication database.