World-renowned Heart Surgeon and Researcher Gerald D. Buckberg, MD, to Receive Honorary Doctorate from UC

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Gerald D. Buckberg, MD, a world-recognized pioneer in the development of life-saving heart surgery techniques, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science at the University of Cincinnati Commencement Ceremony at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, June 9, at Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center. Buckberg is a distinguished professor of surgery in the division of cardiothoracic surgery at the UCLA Medical Center.

Buckberg’s techniques on protecting the heart during surgery are used by surgeons around the United States and the world, with Europe and Asia continually adopting his methods. His research made it possible for surgeons to stop the heart, preserve heart tissue and restart the heart after complex surgery, as well as reconstruct the heart after major heart attacks in a process where cardiac muscle is saved and recovers function despite prolonged periods without blood supply, whereas conventional return of normal blood (either by surgery or angioplasty) fails to allow muscle function to return. These new techniques are now under testing around the world to see if they can benefit patients who otherwise may sustain irreversible loss of heart muscle. Additional methods developed by his team increased the safety of operating on patients who went into shock after acute heart attacks.

Dr. Buckberg earned a bachelor of science from The Ohio State University in 1957 and his MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1961, where he was honored with the S.F. Hoffheimer Award for being the number one student in his graduating class. From 1967 to 1969, he was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for military service. He obtained his surgical training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the UCLA School of Medicine, and was a research fellow at the University of California in San Francisco. He joined the faculty of the UCLA School of Medicine in 1970.

For over two decades, Dr. Buckberg’s work has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health. An author of more than 400 publications, he’s the 2007 recipient of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery Scientific Achievement Award. Previous recipients of this award make up an illustrious group of cardiac surgeons of worldwide eminence and include John Kirklin, Norman Shumway, Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley and Alain Carpentier. Buckberg was selected for his significant contributions in the field of myocardial preservation and his study of the anatomy and functional changes that cause heart failure. The association also cited his persistence in teaching other surgeons how to better protect the heart during heart surgery as one of the most important contributions to modern-day cardiothoracic surgery.

He is the recipient of two prestigious honors from the UC College of Medicine – the Daniel Drake Distinguished Medal, which was awarded in 2000 and recognizes distinguished living faculty or alumni who have made outstanding or unique contributions to medical education, scholarship or research, and the 2001 Distinguished Alumni Award. He has lectured and taught around the world.

Dr. Buckberg is a member of multiple surgical societies including the American Association of Thoracic Surgery, the American Surgical Association and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He serves as editorial consultant for The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and also serves on the advisory editorial board of that journal, is editorial consultant for Circulation and The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.