Michael T Watkins MD, FACS, FAHA

Michael T. Watkins, M.D. is the Director of Vascular Surgery Basic Science Laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the  Isenberg Scholar in Academic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. His basic science interests are in delayed and acute spinal cord injury, skeletal muscle ischemia-reperfusion injury and skeletal muscle regeneration. His clinical interests are in wound healing, infrainguinal occlusive disease, repair of thoracoabdominal aneurysms, and venous disease.  He is also the Medical Director of the Wound Clinic.

He was born in Washington DC in 1954, and relocated to New York City in 1957.   His secondary education was completed at the Peter Stuyvesant High School and undergraduate studies in Biology at New York University.   In 1976, he entered Harvard Medical School, where he served as Chairman of the Third World Caucus, a coalition of minority students at Harvard University. After two years of surgical residency at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Watkins served two years of active duty in the United States Army. He began his initial research in Vascular Cell Biology in the laboratory of Drs. John B. Sharefkin and Norman M. Rich.  Surgical Residency was completed at the University of Rochester, Strong Memorial Hospital followed by a Vascular Fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Watkins was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Development Award to pursue postdoctoral studies in cellular and molecular biology at the Mallory Institute of Pathology from 1988 through 1990. He joined the Department of Surgery at Boston University in 1990, where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor of Surgery, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in 1996. In 1996, Dr. Watkins was appointed Chief of Vascular Surgery at the Boston VA Medical Center and in 1999 he was promoted to Co-Chief of Surgical Services at the VA Boston Healthcare System In April 2002, Dr. Watkins assumed the directorship of the Vascular Surgery Research Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is a Visiting Surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Watkins has received the Joint Services Commendation from the Department of Defense, the Care and Compassion Award from the VA Boston Healthcare System and teaching awards from the University of Rochester and Boston University.  He was a Wylie Scholar in Academic Vascular Surgery from 2004 through 2007. In April of 2006, Dr. Watkins became President of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons. Dr. Watkins served as an associate editor of the journal Circulation from 2008 to 2016.  In 2015, he was the Harvard Medical School nominee for the Arnold Gold Humanitarian Award.  He was the 2016-2017 President of the New England Society of Vascular Surgery.