In 2016, Obesity Surgery Editor-in-Chief, Scott Shikora, MD, inaugurated a series of short bios of surgeons who have championed the discipline of metabolic/bariatric surgery in order to provide a living history of our discipline. Through these profiles, newcomers entering our endeavor have had the opportunity to learn about their predecessors. It is highly appropriate to add such a profile for Scott Shikora himself.

Scott Alan Shikora was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 3, 1959, joining the ranks of many a famous Brooklyn-born personage, some of whose characteristics he exhibits: the belief in fairness of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; the steadfastness of the pitcher Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch game no. 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur; and the ability to proselytize for our national health of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.

Dr. Shikora was schooled through high school in Brooklyn and Long Island. He was a top student, as well as a basketball and lacrosse player. At Muhlenberg College, tall, lanky Scott also played basketball and was on the track team, specializing in the three mandatory jump competitions. He graduated college Magna Cum Laude. Dr. Shikora received his MD degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1985 and completed his internship and surgical residency training at the New England Deaconess Hospital in 1991. He subsequently served four years as a major in the US Air Force at the Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, where he specialized in trauma, intensive care, nutrition, and the training of surgical residents.

Most importantly, he met his bride-to-be at college and married Susan during his tenure in medical school. Scott and Susan have been married 36 years and have been blessed with three children—Jonathan, Katie, and Samuel.

On returning to civilian life, Dr. Shikora accepted a position at the Tufts Medical Center as Director of the Weight and Wellness Center and Chief of the Divisions of Bariatric Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery, and General Surgery. He was promoted to Professor of Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine in 2005. In 2011, Dr. Shikora left Tufts and joined the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as the Director of the Center for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, and Professor of Surgery at the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Shikora’s awards and honors are far too numerous to enumerate. Suffice it to state that they include the Distinguished Achievement Award of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Foundation and the President’s Award of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO). He has served as the President of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, and the American Society for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery; he is currently the President-elect of IFSO for the 2020–2021 term. He has received numerous teaching awards and appears annually in the listings of Best Doctors in America and Boston Super Doctors. Scott belongs to many national societies, including the prestigious American Surgical Association; he has been inducted into multiple foreign surgical societies as an honorary fellow. For his career in the Air Force, he was awarded the Emeritus Service Medal and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

Dr. Shikora has devised and participated in many educational courses. He is the Program Director of the annual Bariatric Summit meeting and the Congress Co-Chair of the International Diabesity and Metabolic Surgery Summit meetings in Tel Aviv, Israel. This meeting provides Scott the opportunity to promote the goal of world peace by an ecumenical discourse among individuals dedicated to world health. He has authored 131 peer-reviewed articles, as well as 44 book chapters. As a teacher, he has been influential in the lives of fellow surgeons, residents, and medical students, as well as over 20 metabolic/bariatric surgery fellows.

With a background in nutrition and a sympathetic disposition, it is not unexpected that Dr. Shikora’s metabolic/bariatric surgery patients achieve greater success and a happier existence than reported in most other series. In addition to a reputation as a superb operating surgeon, skilled in a variety of metabolic/bariatric procedures, he is a wise analyst of the field, familiar with the history of metabolic/bariatric surgery, and cognizant of the directions this field may take in the future. Apart from the re-routing of gastric/intestinal flow, he is an expert in the broader aspect of metabolic surgery. Dr. Shikora is a pioneering researcher in the field of electronic gastric and vagal stimulation to induce weight loss and type 2 diabetes amelioration. The future of that endeavor will be guided by his base of knowledge and his imagination.

Industry is a major driver of metabolic/bariatric surgery. Dr. Shikora has often taken the initiative of working with industry in the development of products or approaches useful to the field of metabolic/bariatric surgery. In this capacity, he has lent credence to the physician/industry relationship, and he has been instrumental in placing the products of industry under the scrutiny of science, i.e., the performance of randomized controlled trials and the necessity for peer-reviewed publications.

In 2012, Dr. Shikora’s rich and varied background in metabolic/bariatric surgery made him an outstanding candidate for Editor-in-Chief of Obesity Surgery, a role in which he continues to excel as a mentor, advisor, and invigorator for our discipline.