Dr. Irving Waxman is currently the Director of The Center for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics (CERT) University of Chicago Medical Center. He also holds academic appointments as Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Professor of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center, and Professor of Surgery, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Waxman completed his undergraduate degree at the Hebrew College "Tarbut," in Mexico City, and completed Certificates in English (Cambridge University, U.K.) and Hebrew (University of Jerusalem, Israel) prior to receiving his medical degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), School of Medicine in Mexico City. He completed his internship and residencies in Internal Medicine at the New England Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Fellowships in Gastroenterology at Georgetown University Hospital and VAMC, Washington D.C., the Digestive Disease Branch at NIH, and Interventional GI at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam. Dr. Waxman's current hospital appointments include Associate Director of the University of Chicago Center for Gastrointestinal (GI) Oncology where he is also the Director of the Center for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics (CERT). Dr. Waxman is a Diplomate in Internal Medicine as well as Gastroenterology. He has received numerous honors and awards throughout the years, and has been consistently listed among the "Best Doctors in America," "Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare," " America's Top Doctors in Cancer" since 2003. This past year he was rated "Top 1% Best Doctors" according to U.S. News and World Report. He has numerous memberships, positions and committee assignments in professional societies, a few of the most recent include: appointed, Chair, ASGE International Committee, elected Fellow of the ASGE (FASGE), faculty Member, Faculty of 1000 Medicine, elected member of the Liver and Biliary (LB) Section of Nominating Committee, AGA Institute, invited member of the Technology Assessment Subcommittee, AGA Institute, appointed Vice-President for North America’s region of the SIED (Sociedad Intramericana de Endoscopia Digestiva), invited member of the Practice Management & Economics Committee, AGA Institute (2009-2012), elected member of the Scientific Committee of the SIED (Sociedad Intramericana de Endoscopia Digestiva), and appointed member of the World Institute for Digestive Endoscopy Research-Barclona N.O.T.E.S Team. Dr. Waxman's primary research interests are focused on endoscopic interventional techniques and technologies, especially as they relate to pancreatico-biliary area and stents, minimally invasive methods for diagnosis of pancreatic diseases, and high frequency ultrasound probe sonography. His clinical applications target high resolution endoscopy and its role in identifying early esophageal and colonic neoplasia, and he has been a dedicated mentor to graduate and medical students, residents, and fellows throughout his career. Dr. Waxman is a reviewer or on the Editorial Board of several journals, he has published over 225 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, reviews and abstracts and has spoken at over 225 national and international invited lectures/courses and presentations, and is currently an investigator or principal investigator on 11 grant-funded research projects. He holds three U.S. patents for a flexible surgical needle device, a technique for simplified pancreatic function test, and the method, apparatus and kit for bile or pancreatic duct endoscopy.