Biography
Pauline W. Chen, a liver transplant and liver cancer surgeon, is the author of Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality (Knopf, 2007; Vintage, 2008), a New York Times bestseller that is being translated and sold in a dozen countries across the world.
Dr. Chen graduated from Harvard University and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her surgical training at Yale University, the National Cancer Institute (National Institutes of Health), and UCLAthe University of California, Los Angeles, where she was most recently a faculty member in the Department of Surgery. In 1999, she was named the U.C.L.A. Outstanding Physician of the Year.
Dr. Chen, whose work has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, has written for a number of publications, including The Virginia Quarterly Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Prevention Magazine. She also speaks regularly to medical and general audiences across the country, including more recently the Association of American Medical Colleges and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.