Dr. Allan Hamilton

Allan Hamilton started his working life as a janitor. He later went on to become a Harvard-trained brain surgeon. He is a decorated Army veteran who served several tours on active duty, including Operation Desert Storm, Commanding Officer of a six-week-long medical research expedition on Mt. McKinley at 16,000 feet and at temperatures reaching thirty below zero, as a flight surgeon assigned to NASA, and as a Guest Instructor in Arctic Navigation at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare School.

Dr. Hamilton holds four professorships at the University of Arizona in Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology, Psychology, and Electrical & Computer Engineering. Dr. Hamilton has authored six non-fiction works that have won numerous literary awards and been translated into several languages. Dr. Hamilton has been selected as “One of the Leading Intellects of the Twenty-First Century” and called “the prototype of the modern Renaissance individual.” He was recognized with the Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. In 2019, he was awarded the highest academic accolade and bestowed the title of Regents Professor.

Dr. Hamilton studied creative writing for two years under Rod Serling, the creator of the TV series The Twilight Zone. For nineteen years, Hamilton has also worked as the senior medical consultant for the hit TV medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. He is currently working on a seventh book on the human brain due in February 2024. His insights in non-fiction have helped shape and inspire educators, tech leaders, politicians, military strategists, designers, filmmakers, ecologists, and scientists around the world. He is a world-renown horse whisperer, was named Horseman of the Year in 2012, and his work with “people saving horses and horses saving people” has been profiled in a feature-length documentary film, directed by Emmy-winning director Wayne Ewing, called Playing with Magic. Hamilton has used horses to teach nonverbal behavior to medical students, business moguls, and lawyers. He and his wife Jane, a clinical psychologist, developed an equine-assisted therapy program for rescuing adolescents out of the juvenile justice system, one for the Republic of Ireland to train retired racehorses to participate in after-school equine-assisted learning, and a EAT manual in collaboration with Columbia University and New York Psychiatric Institute for treat returning veterans with PTSD. He and his wife live in Tucson with their children and grandchildren.

Dr. Hamilton is a devoted horseman and has written two books on training horses: Zen Mind, Zen Horse—The Science and Spirituality of Working with Horses (Storey Publishing, 2011), and Lead with Your Heart—Lessons from a Life with Horses (Storey Publishing, 2016). He is also an avid skier and recently published The New Encyclopedia of Downhill Skiing: The Definitive Guide to Everything About Alpine Skiing from Novice to Expert (Snows of Yesteryear Publishing, 2023). He has also written three nonfiction books about medicine: The Scalpel and The Soul: Encounters with Surgery, the Supernatural, and the Healing Power of Hope (TarcherPenguin, 2009), Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart – Until You’re 80 and Beyond (2nd Edition, Workman Publishing Co, 2019), and Younger Next Year for Women: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart―Until You’re 80 and Beyond (2nd Edition, Workman Publishing Co, 2019). His books have been translated into several languages.

He is the recipient of the 2017 Nautilus Gold Award “for nonfiction books that change the word spiritually one book at a time.” Past recipients include Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Dr. Hamilton’s writings have also been recognized with the 2017 Silver Medal, “IPPY,” Independent Publishers Book Award (the largest book competition in the world); 2017 Silver Medal, 29th Annual Benjamin Franklin Award for works of non-fiction from the Independent Book Publishing Association, and the Nautilus Gold Medal in 2011 and the Nautilus Silver Medal in 2009.