A Career Focused on the Response to Injury
Dr. Billiar was raised in small-town Nebraska, where his veterinarian father and nurse mother helped foster an early interest in healthcare. After earning his medical degree from The University of Chicago in Illinois, he began a surgical residency at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Dr. Billiar later followed his mentor, prominent transplant surgeon and Wangensteen Scientific Forum Award recipient Richard L. Simmons, MD, FACS, to the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, where both have remained. Since 1999, Dr. Billiar has been the George Vance Foster Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He also leads a laboratory focused on understanding the physiological response to trauma and has maintained National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for more than 35 years.
This is an award that the College should feel represents a success of their programs in supporting surgeon-scientists.
Defining the Role of Nitric Oxide
Among Dr. Billiar’s most significant scientific contributions is his work defining the role of nitric oxide in human physiology. Dr. Billiar and his colleagues showed that this molecule, previously best known as a component of smog, is also produced by the human body and serves as a critical signaling molecule in tissue injury and repair.
His research helped demonstrate how inducible nitric oxide production increases after trauma and contributes to the regulation of blood flow, immune defense, and scar tissue formation. His laboratory also cloned the human inducible nitric oxide synthase gene.
Trauma Research Through Multiomics
Dr. Billiar has since expanded his laboratory’s research to study trauma response more broadly, with a particular focus on why some patients recover well after severe injury while others struggle.
To investigate that question, his laboratory has embraced multiomics, an approach that allows researchers to measure thousands of molecules simultaneously. Using biobanking, large databases, and advanced computational methods, the team studies biological changes across multiple systems throughout trauma recovery.
“We've been one of the programs that has been at the forefront of studying the multiomics of severe human injury,” Dr. Billiar said.
Leadership and a Connection to the ACS
Beyond his clinical and scientific work, Dr. Billiar has served as a leader in multiple surgical organizations. He is a past president of the Society of University Surgeons, Surgical Infection Society, SHOCK Society, and International Nitric Oxide Society. He also has served as a member of the NIH Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Trauma Study Section and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Surgical Residency Review Committee.
He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous awards for his contributions to surgery and scientific research.
Dr. Billiar also sees a direct connection between the recognition he is receiving today and support he received from the ACS early in his career. A recipient of three ACS grants as a young investigator, he views the award as evidence of the long-term impact of investing in surgeon-scientists.
“This is an award that the College should feel represents a success of their programs in supporting surgeon-scientists,” Dr. Billiar said.
The Wangensteen Scientific Forum
The Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum at Clinical Congress provides a venue for surgeon-scientists at all career stages to present original research. It is named for Owen H. Wangensteen, MD, FACS (1898–1981), ACS President from 1959 to 1960 and a prominent surgeon and educator who built a highly regarded department of surgery at the University of Minnesota, the same institution where Dr. Billiar began his surgical training.
