Patrick M. Kochanek, MD, MCCM

Administrative Assistant: Marci Ann Provins

Patrick M. Kochanek, MD, is Distinguished Professor of Critical Care Medicine, the Ake N. Grenvik Professor and Vice Chair of Critical Care Medicine; Director of the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research; and Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. As the Safar Center Director for over 28 years, he has a long track-record of translational and multi-departmental research studying traumatic and ischemic brain injury and pediatric and adult neurointensive care, funded by the United States National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. He has >600 listings on PubMed and was identified by Thompson Reuters Science Watch as the most prolific author in the field of TBI from 2001 to 2014. He served as the Principal Investigator for Operation Brain Trauma Therapy, the first multi-center preclinical therapy and biomarker screening consortium in the field, funded by the United States Department of Defense.  He also was lead author of the 2019 Guidelines for the Management of Severe Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury. He has been principal investigator for 21 years of a T-32 titled “Training in Pediatric Neurointensive Care and Resuscitation Research” funded by the United States National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He has mentored numerous trainees, many of whom have gone on to receive independent funding and careers of international prominence.

He is emeritus Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and served as editor-in-chief for 21 years, until October 1, 2020.  Among many awards, he received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the American College of Critical Care Medicine in 2007, was named one of the inaugural Masters of Critical Care Medicine in 2012 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Critical Care Medicine in 2017. He was a distinguished speaker at the 125th anniversary celebration of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in 2018 and gave a Great Teachers Lecture at the National Institute of Health Clinical Center in 2019.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

• Society of Critical Care Medicine, 1987
• National Neurotrauma Society, 1989
• Society for Pediatric Research, 1990
• International Neurotrauma Society, 1996
• World Federation of Pediatric and Intensive Critical Care Societies