Known to many as the "father of transplantation", Dr. Thomas E. Starzl began his groundbreaking work in 1962, when he joined the University of Colorado School of Medicine as an associate professor in surgery.

In 1963, Dr. Starzl successfully combined immunosuppressant drugs following kidney transplants. Soon, kidney transplants were being performed with greater success at hospitals nationwide. The lessons learned from kidney transplantation and discoveries made by Starzl’s team in liver physiology led him to conduct the world’s first successful liver transplant in 1967.

Since then, tens of thousands of transplant patients have benefited from this medical miracle, and according to the United Network of Organ Sharing, surgeons have performed more than 74,000 liver transplants in the United States since 1986.

In 1981, Starzl joined the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he is now director emeritus of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Dr. Starzl received the 2004 National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest scientific honor, for his innovation in transplantation medicine.