W.P. Andrew Lee

W.P. ANDREW LEE, Med 1983, is the inaugural Milton T. Edgerton, M.D. Director and Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. A hand surgeon and basic science researcher, he conducts investigations on tolerance strategy for composite tissue allografts, such as hand or face transplants, to ameliorate the need for long-term systemic immunosuppression.

He is currently president of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and chair of the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He was the 47th chair of the Plastic Surgery Research Council, which had its founding meeting at Johns Hopkins in 1955 under Dr. Milton Edgerton. In 2008, Dr. Lee helped to found the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation. He is the recipient of more than 70 awards and honors.

Dr. Lee graduated with honors from Harvard College in physics, and received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins where he also completed his general surgery residency and a microvascular research fellowship. He did his plastic surgery fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and his orthopaedic hand fellowship at the Indiana Hand Center. In 1993, Dr. Lee joined the faculty of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he became director of the Plastic Surgery Research Laboratory and subsequently chief of Hand Service. He comes to Johns Hopkins from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as division chief of plastic surgery until 2010. At Pittsburgh, he led the surgical team that performed the first bilateral hand transplant and the first above-elbow transplant in the United States.