Dr. Pierson holds the W. Gerald and Patricia Austen Chair in Cardiac Surgery and is the Scientific Director of the Center for Transplantation Sciences at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. He is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and visiting surgeon at MGH, where he participates clinically in thoracic transplantation and cardiac surgical intensive care. He is an established NIH-funded investigator in the areas of translational cardiac allograft tolerance induction and the immunobiology of lung, heart, kidney, and liver xenotransplantation, and author of over 200 peer-reviewed original scientific papers, review articles, and book chapters.

Dr. Pierson received his medical degree from the Columbia University, and trained at University of Michigan, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire, England, in affiliation with Cambridge University. He has served on the faculty at Vanderbilt University (1994-2002), University of Maryland (2002-2018), and Harvard University (2018-present).

Dr. Pierson is board certified in general and thoracic surgery, and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is a member of the American Surgical Association, American Association of Thoracic Surgeons, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and Society of University Surgeons, among others. He is a past president of the International Xenotransplantation Association (2007-09), and current IXA Ethics Committee Chair. He co-chaired WHO’s 1st International Consultation on Regulatory Requirements for Xenotransplantation Clinical Trials, held in Changsha, PRC, and was raporteur for the Geneva follow-up meeting.