The Office of the President
Larry R. Kaiser, M.D., was named President of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the UT System’s most comprehensive academic health science center, on August 1, 2008. Named to the Alkek-Williams Chair, he was appointed as a Professor of Surgery and a Professor of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery. Prior to assuming the presidency, Dr. Kaiser was the John Rhea Barton Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery, as well as Surgeon-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Dr. Kaiser is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and member of every major surgical society including the American Surgical Association, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Clinical Surgery, the Fleischner Society, the Halsted Society, and the Society of University Surgeons. He has served or currently serves on the editorial board of the Annals of Surgery, Contemporary Surgery, ACS Surgery, Annals of Surgical Oncology, and the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. In 2005, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.
After earning his M.D. degree from Tulane University, Dr. Kaiser completed his internship and residency in surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles between 1977 and 1983. He completed his education in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto serving as Senior Resident in Thoracic Surgery in 1985. He joined the faculty on the Thoracic Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center immediately following the completion of his residency.
In 1988, he was recruited to Washington University School of Medicine, to join his mentor, Dr. Joel Cooper. There, he rose to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure in 1990. Dr. Kaiser went to the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 as Associate Professor of Surgery, Chief of General Thoracic Surgery, founder and Director of the Lung Transplantation Program, and Director of the Center for Lung Cancer and Related Disorders.
In collaboration with Dr. Steven Albelda of the Department of Medicine at Penn, Dr. Kaiser has co-directed the Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory. His areas of interest include lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma, and mediastinal tumors. He served as principal investigator of Penn’s grant for the National Emphysema Treatment Trial that evaluated lung volume reduction surgery for patients suffering from end-stage emphysema. Dr. Kaiser is a pioneer in the technique of video thoracoscopy, for which he designed and patented a set of instruments.
Author of more than 250 original papers, Dr. Kaiser is the author or co-author of 13 books. He has been named both a “Top Doc” and a “World Class Doc” multiple times by Philadelphia Magazine, and he has been listed in Best Doctors in America.
Dr. Kaiser presented the 2010 John P. McGovern Annual Award Lectureship in Family, Health, and Human Values at the University of Houston. He was awarded the John P. McGovern Medal.
Dr. Kaiser serves on the boards of the Greater Houston Partnership, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, BioHouston, Houston Technology Center, Texas Heart Institute, John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science and American Heart Association in Houston. He is chairing the Houston March of Dimes Save the Babies campaign for 2009-2010.