I graduated from Harvard University and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and completed my surgical training at Yale University, the National Cancer Institute (National Institutes of Health), and UCLA, where I was most recently faculty. While at Yale, I was the recipient of the Betsy Winters House Staff Teaching award and the George Longstreth Humanness Award for 'most exemplifying empathy, kindness, and care in an age of advancing technology.' In 1999, I was named the UCLA Outstanding Physician of the Year.My first nationally published piece, 'Dead Enough? The Paradox of Brain Death,' appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review and was a finalist for a 2006 National Magazine Award. I was also the 2005 co-winner of the Staige D. Blackford Prize for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2002 Kirkwood Prize for Fiction. Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality (Alfred A. Knopf, January 2007) is my first book.