William Anthony Baumgartner

Baumgartner, a chief of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins, was born in Covington, Kentucky. He received his B.S. from Xavier University in 1969 and his M.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1973. Baumgartner completed an internship in surgery, and residencies in general surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford University Medical Center from 1973 to 1981. He was appointed assistant professor of cardiovascular surgery there in 1981. 

Baumgartner relocated to Hopkins in 1982 where he was appointed assistant professor of surgery and director of the Heart and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and surgeon at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was promoted to associate professor in 1984 and professor in 1991. In 1992, he was named cardiac surgeon-in-charge of the division of cardiac surgery and held that position until 2009. He served as vice dean for clinical affairs and president of the clinical practice organization from 1999 to 2018. Baumgartner also held an appointment at Sinai Hospital as staff surgeon beginning in 1990, and at Suburban Hospital beginning in 2006. From 2011 to 2017, he served Johns Hopkins Medicine as Senior Vice President of the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians.

Baumgartner is a member of various surgical and transplantation societies including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, and the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. He served as president of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Halsted Society and the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. In addition, he served as executive director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. His research interest has been in the field of neurological protection in cardiac surgery, for which he had continuous support from the National Institutes of Health for twenty-five years.

Baumgartner has received numerous awards, including the Javits Neuroscience Research Investigator Award from The National Institutes of Health, the Socrates Teacher of the Year Award from the Thoracic Surgery Residents Association, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Kentucky Medical Alumni Association, the Earl Bakken Scientific Research Award from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Heritage Award from the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Distinguished Service Award.

Baumgartner has published over 393 articles and book chapters/monographs on cardiac surgery and heart and lung transplantation. In addition, he co-authored seven books including Heart and Heart-Lung Transplantation and The Johns Hopkins Manual of Cardiac Surgical Care. Currently, Baumgartner is the senior co-editor of the Society of Thoracic Surgeon’s electronic book of Adult and Congenital Cardiac Surgery. He also served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.