Richard M. Satava MD, FACS

Richard M. Satava, MD, FACS is Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center, and Senior Science Advisor at the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Rick was the surgeon on the team that developed the first surgical robot and developed the first virtual reality surgical simulators. For the past 15 years he has been at DARPA, and now US Army Medical Research Command, funding leading-edge medical technologies at tens and hundreds of millions of dollars a year. He was awarded the Smithsonian Laureate in Healthcare in 1997 and 1999.

Prior positions include Professor of Surgery at Yale University and a military appointment as Professor of Surgery (USUHS) in the Army Medical Corps assigned to General Surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Program Manager of Advanced Biomedical Technology at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Rick’s undergraduate training was at Johns Hopkins University, medical school at the Hahnemann University of Philadelphia, an internship at the Cleveland Clinic, surgical residency at the Mayo Clinic, and a fellowship with a Master of Surgical Research at Mayo Clinic. Rick earned his BA at John Hopkins University in 1964, his MD at Hahnemann University in 1968, and his MS (Surgery Research) at the Mayo Clinic in 1972.