Leonard N. Girardi

Dr. Girardi completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University in 1985 obtaining a degree with honors in Biochemistry.  He pursued his medical education at Cornell University Medical College where he was awarded the Coryell Prize in both Medicine and Surgery and elected as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha.  He then completed both a 5-year general surgery residency and 2-year cardiothoracic residency at the New-York Presbyterian|Weill Cornell Medical Center.  He completed his surgical training as a cardiovascular fellow at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, obtaining subspecialty training in surgery of the aorta and great vessels before returning to New York to join the faculty at Weill Cornell in 1997.

As chair of the department, Dr. Girardi oversees clinical operations across 3 campuses while also leading the department’s core commitments in research and education.  He currently serves on the Boards of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The National Marfan Foundation and also serves on multiple editorial boards and committees for numerous surgical organizations and journals.  He is a Feature Editor of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and has published over 320 peer-reviewed articles  in multiple areas of cardiothoracic surgery, particularly in the area of surgery on the thoracic aorta.  Despite his academic and administrative commitments, he continues to remain the highest volume cardiac surgeon in the state of New York.