Dr. William Baumgartner is the Vincent L. Gott Professor in Cardiology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the cardiac surgeon in charge at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is also vice dean for clinical affairs and president of the Johns Hopkins Clinical Practice Association, the organizational body representing more than 1,700 full-time practicing physicians at Johns Hopkins. After joining Hopkins in 1982, Baumgartner reinitiated the medical center’s heart transplant program, now recognized as one of the country’s leading centers in the surgical treatment of heart failure. His early research focused on organ preservation for transplantation and determination of methods for the noninvasive diagnosis of rejection. Most recently, he has conducted studies into neurological protection in cardiac surgery, an area of research for which he has had continuous funding support from the National Institutes of Health for the past 12 years. In 2002, he received the Javits Neuroscience Research Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health. As a member of the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, he has played a major role in the development of a structured curriculum for thoracic surgery residency education and has championed the introduction of innovative educational tools. Most recently, Baumgartner was awarded the Socrates Teacher of the Year Award from the Thoracic Surgery Residents Association. In addition, he has held top posts in several other national and international professional organizations, including past president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and member of the Thoracic Surgery Residency Review Committee. His bibliography includes more than 250 journal articles, book chapters and books. A graduate of Xavier University and of the University of Kentucky Medical School, Baumgartner received his surgical training at Stanford Medical School. | 
