Julio Perez Fontan, M.D.

Dr. Julio Pérez Fontán joined UT Southwestern Medical Center on September 1, 2004. He had previously been the Alumni Endowed Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Anesthesiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Dr. Pérez Fontán received his undergraduate and graduate degrees (both summa cum laude) from the University of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, followed by residency training in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at the University of California in San Francisco. He served in the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics and the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California in San Francisco until 1985, when he was recruited to the Department of Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine. In 1992, he was recruited as the founding Director of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine and the St. Louis Children’s Hospital. In 2001, he was appointed as the Alumni Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine. Under his leadership, the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine achieved international recognition for the quality of its multidisciplinary programs and its strong emphasis on research.

Before his current appointment as Chair of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Physician-in-Chief at Children’s Health, Dr. Pérez Fontán served as the UT Southwestern Associate Dean for Pediatric Services and Program Development and the Children’s Medical Center Executive Vice President, Medical Affairs, overseeing the coordination of clinical services, program growth and development, research, and medical education for the pediatric programs of both institutions until 2012.

Dr. Pérez Fontán’s own research has been centered on factors that define the biomechanical interdependence between airways and the surrounding lung parenchyma. His laboratory studied the viscoelastic properties of the tissues involved, the manner in which vagal tone influences these properties during development, the complex organization of the neural network that controls vagal tone, and the role of nerve-released tachykinins in the genesis of airway inflammation. His work was funded continuously by NIH and other agencies and resulted in multiple publications and reviews in the medical literature. Dr. Pérez Fontán has served as a member of both the editorial Board of several professional publications and the national leadership panels of professional societies and other organizations.