Juan Carlos Puyana has been selected as the O’Brien Professor of Global Surgery for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). He will begin his tenure at the Irish university in April.
Along with the professorship’s efforts to increase access to safe and effective surgical care worldwide, Puyana will lead the RCSI Institute of Global Surgery, a core component of RCSI’s newly created School of Population Health headed by Pitt alumnus Edward Gregg (SPH ’96G).
The professor of surgery, critical care medicine and clinical translational science will continue his teaching and mentoring students in Pitt’s School of Medicine and continue as the Department of Surgery’s director for global health. He will also serve as an international global health liaison to the school’s Office of the Dean.
Puyana, who arrived at Pitt in 2001, is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and has received two Pitt Innovator Awards. He co-authored the most recent National Academy of Sciences report on global health as a member of its Board on Global Health and is a co-principal investigator of BLOODSAFE, a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute program aimed at improving the safety and availability of blood transfusions in Kenya.