Professor Donald D. Trunkey

Donald Trunkey obtained his B.S. from Washington State University in 1959 and his M.D. from the University of Washington in 1963. Following his internship at the University Oregon Medical School, he served for two years as a medical officer in the U.S. military base in Germany. He then completed his training in general surgery at the University of California in San Francisco, spent one year in the Organ Preservation Laboratory, and another year at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, on a special NIH fellowship in trauma. After completing his fellowship in Dallas, Professor Trunkey returned to the University of California, San Francisco, where he became involved in the care of trauma patients, and later became Chief of the Burn Center at San Francisco General Hospital.

Professor Trunkey established a laboratory to study mechanisms of shock at the cellular level with a special interest in myocardial performance following shock, lung injury, and cellular immune mechanisms following injury. In 1978, he became Chief of Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, and in April 1986, he was appointed Chairman at Oregon Health Sciences University Department of Surgery, where he built a strong general surgery residency based on all the primary components of general surgery. Following his chairmanship, he was appointed Professor Emeritus at OHSU in 2007.

Professor Trunkey dedicated his career to the development of this field, having authored around 170 journal articles, 24 books, and 200 book chapters, and presented many honorary lectures. He also served on the editorial boards of many professional journals.

Professor Trunkey received many other prestigious awards and honors including: Distinguished Service Award of the American College of Surgeon, Washington State University Distinguished Alumnus Award, Barry Goldwater Service Award, International Society of Surgery Prize, Honorary Membership of the British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine, Honorary Fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England, Ireland, Edinburgh, Glasgow, South Africa and Brazil, Medal of the Royal College of Medicine of England and Honorary Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.