Clyde F. Barker, MD, Chair
Clyde F. Barker is a native of Salt Lake City, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Cornell University and Cornell University Medical College. After internship, residency in surgery and fellowship in vascular surgery at University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Barker studied transplantation biology under Rupert Billingham as a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Medical Genetics. In 1966, his first year on the faculty, he initiated the University's transplant program by performing a kidney transplant—this transplant is currently one of only a small number in the world that is still functioning, 45 years later.
The multi-organ transplant program he founded and directed until 2001 has grown to be one of the largest in the United States, performing more than 350 transplants per year. From 1966-2001 he was Chief of Transplantation Surgery, from 1982-2001, Chief of Vascular Surgery and from 1983-2001 John Rhea Barton Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery.
Dr. Barker's research interests have been primarily in transplantation, especially transplantation of the kidney, pancreas and isolated pancreatic islets. His research was continuously funded for over twenty-five years by grants from the National Institutes of Health, including an NIH Merit Award from 1987 to 1995. Dr. Barker has published 430 scientific papers. He has served on 12 editorial boards, including, Diabetes, Transplantation, Journal of Surgical Research, Archives of Surgery, Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and the Annals of Surgery.
Dr. Barker's scientific memberships include the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the American College of Surgeons, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society of which he is now a President-Elect. He has been President of the Gift of Life Donor Program, the American Society of Transplantation Surgeons, the United Network for Organ Sharing, the Halsted Society, the U.S. Chapter of the International Society of Surgery and the American Surgical Association. He has served as visiting professor at 90 different universities and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Dr. Barker is the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards, including the Roche Pioneer Award of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Sheen Award of the American College of Surgeons, the Medallion for Scientific Achievement of the American Surgical Association, the Jonathan Rhoads Gold Medal of the American Philosophical Society, the Distinguished Graduate Award of the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, the Thomas E. Starzl Prize in Transplantation and Immunology, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of University Surgeons and the Medawar Prize of the Transplantation Society.
