More about Dr. Robert Goldwyn...

In 1980, he was appointed Clinical Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

He was Assistant Chief Editor of the Archives of Surgery from 1970 to 1977 and from 1979 to 2004, he was Editor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

He has authored or co-authored more than 350 articles, more than 50 chapters, and has edited many books: The Unfavorable Result in Plastic Surgery: Avoidance and Treatment (now in its third edition), Reconstructive Surgery of the Breast, Long-Term Results in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Reduction Mammaplasty, The Patient and the Plastic Surgeon (two editions), The Operative Note, a collection of his editorials, The Physician Traveler (18 volumes), and an autobiography, Beyond Appearance: Reflections of a Plastic Surgeon.

With J. Sax as translator, he wrote an introduction to G. Baronio’s Degli Innesti Animali, 1804 (On Grafting In Animals) and to the first complete English translation by J.H. Thomas of G. Tagliacozzi’s De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem, 1597 (On the Surgical Restoration of Defects by Grafting – a facsimile edition).

Dr. Goldwyn was among the first to perform experimental microsurgical transfer flaps and limb transplantation. Early in his career, he investigated the use of cryotherapy in the treatment of vascular tumors of the head and neck and in the palliation of unresectable recurrent breast cancers of the chest wall. He developed new techniques for reduction mammaplasty, a major focus of his clinical activity.

Dr. Goldwyn was President of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, the Massachusetts Society of Plastic Surgeons, the New England Society of Plastic Surgery, and the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, where he was named Clinician of the Year, Distinguished Fellow, and recipient of the Honorary Award.

In 1972 he founded the National Archives of Plastic Surgery, housed at Harvard Medical School and has since served as Chairman of the Archives Committee of the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation.

He was a founding member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and has written numerous articles on world peace, opposition to chemical and biological warfare, medical ethics and medical history.

He has been Visiting Professor to more than 70 institutions, universities and hospitals in this country and abroad and is an honorary member of more than a dozen national and international societies of plastic surgery and has served in various capacities in numerous plastic surgical organizations, medical and non-medical societies throughout the world.

Other awards include the Dieffenbach Medal, numerous named lectureships including the Honorary Kazanjian Lectureship, the Special Achievement Award and the Presidential Citation of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. On several occasions, he has received official recognition for his teaching and writing.
Back to About Us Page >>