Pierre-Alain Clavien

Professor Pierre-Alain Clavien, MD, PhD, FACS (hon), FRCS (Eng & Ed), is a globally recognised surgeon-scientist and leader in translational surgical research with a distinguished career spanning clinical innovation, basic science, and academic leadership. He serves as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland, where he directs both clinical programs and an active basic science laboratory that has operated continuously since 1994.
Dr. Clavien completed his medical and surgical training in Switzerland before pursuing advanced research at the University of Toronto (Canada), where he obtained a PhD in organ preservation and completed clinical fellowships in hepatobiliary and transplant surgery. He subsequently held leadership positions at Duke University Medical Center (USA), including directing liver transplantation, hepatobiliary surgery, and transplantation divisions before assuming his current role in Zurich.
His research portfolio encompasses organ preservation strategies, mechanisms of liver regeneration and ischemia-reperfusion injury, and the molecular pathogenesis of cancer. His laboratory’s work contributed to the discovery of serotonin as a key mediator of liver regeneration, a finding published in Science, and has shaped understanding of liver biology with implications for surgical and therapeutic innovation.
Professor Clavien also developed a widely adopted system for classifying postoperative complications—the basis of contemporary surgical outcome metrics. His contributions are reflected in publications across Science, PNAS, Gastroenterology, Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine.
He has served as President of key professional societies including the European Surgical Association and the European Hepatobiliary Association, and holds editorial positions on multiple high-impact journals in surgery and transplantation. His honours include the prestigious Otto Naegeli Prize for scientific research, the UEGW Research Prize, honorary fellowships of the American College of Surgeons and American Surgical Association, and election to the National Academy of Medicine (USA).
Professor Clavien remains a leading figure in surgical science and education, driving advances in organ transplantation, liver surgery, and translational research that bridge fundamental biology with clinical practice.