George Dale Zuidema

Zuidema, a chief of surgery at Johns Hopkins, was born in Holland, Michigan. He earned his B.A. from Hope College in 1949 and his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1953. He completed a surgical internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1953 to 1954 and served in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps from 1954 to 1956. Zuidema returned to Massachusetts General in 1957, where he was named chief resident in 1959. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School in 1960.

In 1964, Johns Hopkins recruited Zuidema as surgeon-in-chief of the hospital and professor of surgery at the school of medicine. In 1984, Zuidema was appointed professor of surgery and vice provost for medical affairs at the University of Michigan Medical School. He held these positions until his retirement in 1994.

While at Johns Hopkins, Zuidema chaired the study on surgical services of the United States and led major research efforts in various areas ranging from portal hypertension to gastrointestinal physiology. His interests and accomplishments have covered a wide range of subjects, including basic science research, clinical surgery, outcomes research, and health policy.

Zuidema has been a leader in many national surgical societies. He was a founding member of the Association of Academic Surgery and served as its president in 1968. He has published extensively throughout his career, producing more than twenty-five books and over 200 scientific articles. His books include such standards as The Johns Hopkins Atlas of Human Functional Anatomy, Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and The Management of Trauma.