Joseph Bavaria, MD, FACS, FRCS (Edin) Ad hom is Professor of Surgery and Vice-Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. He was the 52nd President of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), and past President of the Thoracic Surgery Foundation (TSF). He is the Treasurer and Executive Committee Member of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS). His clinical interests are in Thoracic Aortic Surgery and Heart Valve Disease. Additionally, Dr. Bavaria’s clinical interests include a very busy program in the field of thoracic aortic endovascular repair (TEVAR).

He has performed over 11,000 open heart procedures and is the author of approximately 600 original manuscripts, reviews and book chapters and holds multiple patents.

Dr. Bavaria’s other clinical interests include valvular heart surgery including bicuspid aortic valve. He was a Primary Investigator for early transcatheter aortic valve (TAVI) clinical trials. He was Founder of the PENN TAVI Program and was the STS/ACC TVT Steering Committee Chair (2017-2020). He founded an active cardio-aortic clinical research group and has been both the institutional and national primary investigator in over 50 industry sponsored, FDA IDE Phase I, II, and III trials.

Dr. Bavaria was an honors exchange student at the University of Edinburgh College of Engineering and graduated with honors in Chemical Engineering at Tulane University where he also received his medical degree. He was awarded the “gold scalpel”, the highest surgical honor for a graduating Tulane medical student. He completed his general surgery and Cardiovascular and Thoracic training at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).