Dr. Adeel Ilyas, M.D. was born in 1991 and completed his early secondary education from the American-international school in the seaside city of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia and latter education in Virginia where he graduated from the Governor’s School for Science and Technology with distinction.

He completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in three years from where he obtained a BA in Neuroscience and minor in Computer Science, during which time he took elective courses in quantum mechanics, linear algebra, and artificial intelligence. He was an Echols scholar and on consistently on the Dean’s List. His extracurricular activities included basic science research under the mentorship of Jaideep Kapur, MBBS, Ph.D. (former president of America Epilepsy Society and current Chair of the Board of the International League against Epilepsy for North America), eventually leading to his distinguished major thesis.

Having obtained his baccalaureate in May 2012, Ilyas worked in a powerplant simulation company as a software engineer developing performant code in C to simulate fluid properties and heat transfer. Having completed this transitional year, he obtained his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in May 2017, where he cultivated a passion for neurosurgery. He advanced his research career and first authored several publications on outcomes of stereotactic radiosurgery for cerebral arteriovenous malformations.

Ilyas completed his neurosurgical residency training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham under world-renown mentors James Markert, M.D., MPH, Mark Hadely, M.D., and Winfield S Fisher III, M.D. He developed a subspecialized interest in epilepsy and completed both an in-folded research (June 2021) and post-residency clinical (June 2025) fellowship in epilepsy and stereotactic functional neurosurgery under the mentorship of Nitin Tandon, M.D., at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Ilyas researched thalamic deep brain stimulation, an emerging therapy for select epilepsies.

In September 2025, Ilyas joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery. He treats patients with a variety of neurosurgical pathologies including benign and malignant brain tumors, trigeminal neuralgia, movement disorder, and epilepsy. He applies his unique skillset in scientific computing and machine learning to analyze signals from direct brain recordings to improve outcomes in patients with epilepsy.

Education

Medical School
University of Virginia School of Medicine

Residency
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Fellowship
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Contact

Campus Address
FOT 1003

Patient Appointments and Questions
205-934-7170

Email
adeelilyas@uabmc.edu