I am dedicated to the care of patients with lethal diseases, particularly pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis. My career in clinical innovation and expertise combines my undergraduate education in physical chemistry and mathematics with prognostic modeling of patient outcomes relevant to cancer and complex pancreatic surgery. My objective is to personalize treatment for pancreatic cancer: a horrific disease for which 70% of Americans currently elect to do nothing, both out of the perceived futility of current therapy as well as their justifiable fear of surgery. This career focus has given my translational research and clinical activities a singular purpose, and all of my teaching and philanthropic efforts are dedicated to it. I focus on building a team dedicated to the multidisciplinary treatment of pancreatic cancer. As Co-Director of the UPMC Pancreatic Cancer Center, I led efforts which increased annual patient volume four-fold, established the first multidisciplinary clinic within UPMC Cancer Centers, and pioneered the application of robotic technology to complex pancreatic diseases to reduce the pain of surgery and stress of treatment. The foundation of these efforts has been our translational research focus on validating predictive models both to specify the risk of surgery as well as to predict a patient’s likely survival afterward. Transparency and teamwork are the key ingredients in these efforts. My research effort has been funded generously by the philanthropy of patients and families affected by this disease, and I owe our success to their enduring partnership.