Josef Zentner received his neurosurgical training at the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Freiburg, Germany. He completed his PhD in neurophysiology with studies on intraoperative motor evoked potential monitoring at the Department of Neurosurgery in Tübingen. A fellowship in the USA and Canada acquainted him with epilepsy surgery. As the vice chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery in Bonn he took over the surgical part of the epilepsy surgical program in 1990 and was appointed to a professorship (C3) 1994. In 1997 he received full professorship (C4) and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Freiburg. As the surgical treatment of epilepsies was his main focus, Dr. Zentner, in collaboration with the epilepsy center Kehl/Kork, established a grade IV center for epilepsy surgery in Freiburg, which was assigned by the Social Ministry of Stuttgart to provide epilepsy surgery care for the populace of Baden-Württemberg. In 2003 Dr. Zentner was appointed president of the German chapter of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). In addition, he served as dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg from 2003 to 2005. Dr. Zentner was active on several editorial boards and published many articles on various aspects of epilepsy surgery. Among other research foundations, his scientific work was supported by the DFG. Dr. Zentner retired in 2018.
