PETER SZMUK

I am originally from Romania, I attended the Institute of Medicine in Târgu Mureș and did my anesthesia residency in Kaplan Hospital, Rehovot, Israel. Currently, I am Professor of Anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, and Director of Pediatric Clinical Research in the Division of Pediatric Anesthesia at Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

From the beginning of my career, I have been involved with clinical research which resulted in over 140 publications. I am used to working on large collaborative projects like the GAS study in which 24 centers from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zeeland worked together in the only prospective randomized trial dedicated to the role of general anesthetics in neurodevelopment of young patients. Part of this study was NIH sponsored and resulted in multiple publications including two of them in 2016 and 2019 in Lancet. I was the leader of the follow-up pilot study – the TREX study with most of the same group.

I also participated in multiple industry-sponsored, pediatric pain, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies, which makes me particularly suited for the current study project.

As the Director of Pediatric Clinical Research in our institution for over 15 years, we developed a robust research team, including research coordinators, grant managers, and contract and budget support.