Surgical Giants in Hepatobiliary Disease, Transplantation Pass Away

Two Fellows with prolific, transformative careers in surgical oncology and transplantation, respectively, recently passed away.

Michael J. Zinner, MD, FACS

The ACS and the surgical profession writ large have lost a transformative leader. Michael J. Zinner, MD, FACS, passed away on October 25 at the age of 80.

Dr. Zinner was a renowned cancer surgeon, influential educator, and prolific researcher whose clinical expertise involved pancreatic-hepatobiliary diseases and whose visionary leadership advanced academic surgery and patient care.

He received his medical degree in 1971 from the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville and completed his surgical residencies at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes in Baltimore, Maryland.

Over his career, Dr. Zinner held many high-profile positions, including chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of California Los Angeles (1988–1994) and clinical director and surgeon-in-chief at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts (1995–2015), where he also co-founded/co-directed the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. 

In 2015, Dr. Zinner became the founding CEO and executive medical director of the Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida. 

An ACS Fellow since 1983, Dr. Zinner served the College in numerous capacities. These roles included service on the Health Policy and Advocacy Committee, Board of Governors (2002-2010, Chair 2008–2010) and Board of Regents (2010-2019, Chair 2016-2017).

Dr. Zinner authored more 265 academic papers and was a member of several editorial boards, including the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 

Read more about Dr. Zinner’s life and legacy.

Clyde F. Barker, MD, FACS

Clyde F. Barker, MD, FACS, a clinical and research pioneer in transplant surgery, passed away on October 2 at the age of 93.

After earning his medical degree at Cornell Medical School in New York City, Dr. Barker completed his general surgery training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he continued to train and practice the rest of his career. He became head of transplantation in 1966, professor of surgery in 1973, chief of vascular surgery in 1981, and John Rhea Barton Professor and Chair of Surgery (1983–2001). 

Early at his time at UPenn, he worked closely alongside famed transplant researcher Rupert E. Billingham, MD, where they became early investigators into the clinical aspects of immunology and tolerance that allowed transplantation to be possible. 

As Dr. Thomas Starzl, the “father of modern transplantation” and a contemporary of Dr. Barker noted in a 2013 JACS article, the pair were responsible for discovering a core element of organ transplantation: “With their elegant but simple experiment, they had elucidated one of the two mechanisms of allograft acceptance, namely the failure of the immune system to recognize the presence of antigen that does not reach host lymphoid organs, ie, ‘immune ignorance.’”

An ACS Fellow from 1967, Dr. Barker served as an ACS Governor from 1993 to 1999. He also was president of several major surgical organizations including the American Surgical Association, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and the Halsted Society.

Read more about Dr. Barker’s life and legacy.