Dr. Lucas Neff is a board certified general surgeon and fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is currently engaged in full-time clinical practice at Emory University and will be transitioning to Wake Forest University as a surgical faculty member in the division of Surgical Sciences. Dr. Neff is a former U.S. Air Force surgeon with deployment experience in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2013-2014. Additionally, he is a clinician-scientist with an extensive background in basic, translational, and clinical science research efforts across several institutions.

While on active duty as a staff surgeon with the USAF at Travis AFB, Dr. Neff served as a lead USAF surgical researcher at the 60th Clinical Investigation Facility with three overarching goals:

• Empowering USAF research residents to become the next generation of military surgeon-scientists.
• Performing quality translational research in combat casualty care.
• Forging lasting collaborations between major academic medical universities and DoD research facilities. While on active duty, he was integral in securing USAF advanced development funding for novel resuscitation paradigms and developing innovative clinical solutions in parallel with the translational research efforts. Dr. Neff has authored 30+ peer-reviewed publications and book chapters in the fields of trauma, burns, pediatric surgery and regenerative medicine. As executive medical director for the MHRF and a practicing surgeon, Dr. Neff provides both an important clinical perspective as well as an in-depth understanding of research design, methodology, and technical writing. He has co-authored numerous research grant proposals and has helped generate and direct over $10 million dollars of translational and advanced development research funding.