Howard M. Eisenberg was an native New Yorker, his undergraduate education was at Syracuse University, and he obtained a Medical degree from Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.He then did two years of general surgical training at New York Hospital - Cornell. He completed neurosurgical training at Peter Bent Brigham and Children's Hospital in Boston in June of 1970. Howard M. Eisenberg then spent two years active duty in the Navy and returned to Boston in 1972 as a member of the faculty Howard University School of Medicine and an attending at Peter Bent Brigham and Children's Hospital. He has volunteered his time in various organizations that include the Academy of Neurology, (where he was Vice President and Chairman of the Scientific Program in 2000), The National Institutes of Health (where he was a member and Chairman of the old study section NeuroA), and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Neurosurgery. Howard M. Eisenberg was also a Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery where he has served as Chairman of the Primary Exam Committee, Secretary/Treasurer and Chairman and a member and vice chair of the Residency Review Committee for neurosurgery.

The research interest of Howard M. Eisenberg include skull based surgery,epilepsy &movement disorders