Dr. Laws received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University with honors in Economics and Sociology in the Special Program in American Civilization, and then attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md. He did his surgical internship and neurosurgical residency at Johns Hopkins. After completing his residency, he joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1972, he moved to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he became Professor of Neurosurgery and developed major interests in Pituitary and Brain tumor treatment and research. In 1987, he became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, and in 1992 joined the faculty of the University of Virginia as Professor of Neurosurgery and Professor of Medicine, developing a Multidisciplinary Pituitary Center there. Subsequently, he was Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University. In 2008, he established the Pituitary/Neuroendocrine Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he currently is Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. During his surgical career he has operated upon more than 8,000 brain tumors, of which more than 6,000 have been pituitary lesions.
Dr. Laws has served as President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Editor of Neurosurgery, President of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and President of the Pituitary Society. He has been the fifth neurosurgeon to become President of the American College of Surgeons and was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine. He remains actively involved in Brain and Pituitary tumor research and surgery.