Alik Farber, MD, MBA, has been named Surgeon-in-Chief at Boston Medical Center and James Utley Professor and Chair of Surgery at BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, following a national search.

Farber, who was appointed interim chief and chair of surgery in January of this year, is deeply committed to advancing the department’s goals with a focus on patient care, quality and advancing innovative research. Under his leadership, the department will continue to cultivate and attract top academic talent and clinicians who are also committed to mentoring the next generation of expert academic surgeons.

Farber is internationally renowned for his clinical expertise and research in the treatment of peripheral artery disease. He has published more than 260 peer-reviewed articles and is co-principal investigator of the landmark National Institutes of Health-sponsored Best Endovascular versus Best Surgical Therapy in Patients with Critical Limb Ischemia (BEST-CLI) trial, a multicenter, multispecialty, pragmatic, randomized, controlled trial recently completed at 150 sites across North America, Europe and New Zealand.

He chairs the BEST-CLI Publications Committee to oversee the analysis and dissemination of clinical research from the BEST-CLI dataset, with more than 40 manuscripts currently in process. As part of the International BEST-CLI Collaborative, he and 25 leading vascular specialists from across the world are building on the BEST-CLI evidence base to answer the most pressing research questions and to accelerate global patient-oriented solutions for peripheral artery disease.

Farber began his career in 1999 as a vascular surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In 2005, he was recruited to Boston Medical Center as a vascular surgeon and joined the faculty of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine as an assistant professor, rising to full professor in 2015. Throughout his tenure, Farber has been involved in a variety of clinical, academic, educational and operational leadership roles.

A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School, he completed a residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, a vascular surgery fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and an endovascular surgery fellowship at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He received an MBA from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.