Dr Susumu Satomi is a Japanese surgeon. He is the 21st President of Tohoku University and the President of the Japan Association of National Universities. Dr Satomi previously served as the Director of the Tohoku University Hospital, and the Vice-President of Tohoku University. He was the President of the Japan Surgical Society from 2008-2012.
Education
Dr Satomi graduated from Okinawa prefecture’s Naha High School in 1967. In 1974, he received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Tohoku University in the city of Sendai, Japan, and then his Doctorate in Medicine Science in 1984. Following this he worked as a research fellow at the Harvard Medical School Transplant Institute from 1984-1986.
Experience
Dr Satomi started working at the second Department of Surgery at Tohoku University School in 1977. He was promoted to associate professor in 1986, and became a full professor in 1995.
In 1998, he performed the first kidney transplant from a brain-dead donor in Japan, following a change in law the previous year that legalized organ procurement from brain-dead donors.
From 1999 he was a professor and chair of the Division of Advanced Surgical Science and Technology at the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. Dr Satomi became the Director of the Tohoku University Hospital in 2004, until 2012.
Areas of Expertise
From 2008 until 2012, Dr Satomi served as the President of the Japan Surgical Society. He specializes in organ transplantation (liver, pancreas, kidney), gastrointestinal surgery, regenerative medicine, and surgical metabolism and nutrition. He has performed numerous successful transplants using organs from deceased donors.
