Mark S. Cohen, MD, FACS is Professor of Surgery and Pharmacology at the University of Michigan. Serving as Associate Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Department of Surgery, as Director for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence at the University of Michigan Medical School, and as Innovation Chief for the University of Michigan Rogel Comprehensive Cancer Center, he has helped develop new innovation curricula across all vertical levels of learners from senior faculty all the way to undergraduate and graduate students and medical students leading to several new start-ups, licenses, and patents as well as a $3M Surgical Innovation Prize Fund which he directs at the University. He is a serial entrepreneur cofounding startups in therapeutics, devices and digital health. He completed surgical residency at Washington University and a NIH T32-sponsored fellowship in Endocrine and Oncologic Surgery at Washington University. As a practicing Surgical Oncologist and Endocrine Surgeon, he clinical interests are focused in the care of patients with advanced melanomas and endocrine tumors. His translational research program has been funded through 3 NIH R01 research grants along with support from the Komen Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the Department of Surgery. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, 10 book chapters, and serves as an Associate Editor for the journal SURGERY for its INNOVATION series. He has also served multiple leadership roles in the Association for Academic Surgery, the Society of University Surgeons, and the American Association for Endocrine Surgeons, and has served as a grant review panelist for the National Science Foundation and NIH’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase I and phase II award programs.. Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS is Professor of Surgery, Division Chief of Acute Care Surgery, Director of the Red Duke Trauma Institute, and Vice-Chairfor Research and Faculty Development at the McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Her research interests include the evaluation of novel therapies and interventions and dissemination and implementation of research into practice. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and 13 book chapters, and she is one of the two editors for the Springer series on “Success in Academic Surgery.” She is a Past President of the Association for Academic Surgery and is active in multiple surgical societies. She is the social media editor for the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
