Duke Cameron

Cameron, a cardiac surgeon, was born in Miami, Florida. He received his A.B. from Harvard in 1974 before attending the Yale University School of Medicine where he received his M.D. in 1978. Cameron completed a residency in surgery at the Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1980 before serving as Surgical Registrar at the Middlesex Hospital in London in 1981. He then returned to Yale as Senior Resident in surgery from 1981 to 1983, and served as chief resident in general surgery from 1983 to 1984. Cameron came to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1984 as a resident in cardiac surgery before becoming chief resident in 1986.

Cameron was appointed assistant professor of cardiac surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and as staff cardiac surgeon, director of the cardiac surgery computer center, and co-director of the cardiac surgical intensive care unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1987. In 1989, he was named co-director of Pediatric Heart and Heart-Lung Transplantation at The Johns Hopkins Hospital before becoming director in 1993. In 1992, Cameron was promoted to associate professor of cardiac surgery in the school of medicine and in 1993 he was named director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the hospital. During 1993, Cameron served as Locum Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. In 1995, he was named associate professor of pediatrics in the school of medicine. Cameron was promoted in 2001 to full professor in both cardiac surgery and pediatrics in the school of medicine. In 2002, Cameron was named co-director of the Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Center for Aortic Diseases at the hospital. He was promoted to director in 2009 as well as being named chief of cardiac surgery and cardiac surgeon-in-charge. That year, Cameron also became the first recipient of the James T. Dresher, Sr. Professorship in Cardiac Surgery. In 2011, he was named clinical professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine as well. In 2018, Cameron left Johns Hopkins for Harvard Medical School where he was named professor of surgery and staff surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2023, Cameron returned to Johns Hopkins as Professor of Cardiac Surgery.

Cameron is widely recognized for his expertise in aortic surgery, particularly in the treatment of Marfan syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome and other connective tissue disorders. His clinical interests encompass both adult and pediatric cardiac surgery, mitral valve repair, cardiac transplantation, and adult cardiac surgery, including a landmark 2008 study documenting a thirty-year surgical history of 372 cases of Marfan syndrome treated at Johns Hopkins. He has participated in longstanding surgical collaborations with colleagues in hospitals throughout the world, including in Cuba, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, and Italy.

From 2017 to 2018, Cameron was president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. He is a member of several professional associations including the Association for Academic Surgery, the International College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, the Royal Society of Medicine in London and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He has written over 200 articles, twenty-six book chapters and four books on cardiac surgery. Cameron has mentored many young doctors and served on numerous committees. His many awards include the J. Maxwell Chamberlain Memorial Papers award from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Antoine Marfan Award from the Marfan Foundation and the Socrates Teaching Award from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.