Dr. W. Gerald Austen (SB 1951), the Edward D. Churchill Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and a life member of the MIT Corporation, will deliver a Department of Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Alumni Lecture at 4pm Tuesday, Nov. 10 in Rm 3-270.
Dr. Austen, a pioneer in the surgical treatment of complications of acute coronary artery disease and in the development of circulatory support systems, will speak on "The Transition from Engineering into Medicine: A Great Choice."
Dr. Austen was surgeon-in-chief at Massachusetts General Hospital for 28 years. He is author or co-author of 421 articles, 51 chapters and four texbooks. He presently serves as chair of the Department of Biology Visiting Committee and as a member of the Whitaker College Visiting Committee, the MIT Medical Management Board and the MIT Hospital Board. He received the SB in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1951 and the MD from Harvard Medical School in 1955.
Dr. Austen will give the second of this year's Distinguished Alumni Lectures, a series established by the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1991. Generally, three or four alumni/ae are brought in each year for two-day campus visits to meet with the department head, selected faculty and students. The program allows eminent alumni/ae to remain actively involved with the department, and creates a means for students to interact with successful graduates.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 4, 1998.
