Acclaimed heart surgeon Hoganson to deliver Hopeman lecture

Grove City College alumnus Dr. David Hoganson ’98 was born with complex congenital heart disease that he said required “innovation and boldness” to repair surgically in an earlier era of cardiac care.

Today, decades later, Hoganson is the one taking those innovative and bold steps to save lives as a pediatric cardiac surgeon and medical engineer at Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as serving as a surgical instructor at Harvard Medical School.

Hoganson will deliver the Albert A. Hopeman Jr. Memorial Lecture in Faith & Technology at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6 in the Sticht Lecture Hall of the Staley Hall of Arts and Letters on campus. He will discuss “Direction and Providence: Following God in Engineering and Medicine.”

Hoganson earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Grove City College and worked in industry as a biomedical engineer, developing cardiovascular medical devices before attending Temple University School of Medicine. After graduation in 2004, he trained in general surgery and adult cardiothoracic surgery at Washington University in St. Louis and completed a research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Tissue Engineering. Upon completion of a pediatric cardiac surgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2016, he joined the hospital’s staff.

Hoganson’s clinical focus is on neonates and infants diagnosed with complex congenital heart disease and in the cardiac assist and heart and lung transplant programs. He is an intensivist in the cardiac intensive care unit. His research involves utilizing autologous umbilical veins as a shunt or patch material in neonates with complex congenital heart disease requiring surgery. Hoganson’s lab work focuses on devices to improve the safety and effectiveness of cardiac surgery, developing new transplant therapies, and lung tissue engineering efforts to improve transplant technologies.

“Dr. David Hoganson is an excellent example of how Grove City College prepares students for their unique calling,” said Dr. Peter M. Frank ’95, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. “Earning a degree in Electrical Engineering before pursuing medical school, Dr. Hoganson built upon the foundation he acquired at Grove City College to serve children as a pediatric cardiac surgeon. We are extremely grateful that he can share how his faith has shaped his journey as a scientist and a physician.”  

The lecture will be livestreamed at gcc.edu/livestream.  

While on campus, Hoganson will also deliver a technical lecture for students and meet with pre-med students to discuss the medical field and career opportunities.

The Albert A. Hopeman Jr. Memorial Lecture is presented by the Grove City College Alumni Association in honor of Hopeman, an accomplished engineer, renowned industrialist, and generous benefactor of the College who served as President of the Grove City College Board of Trustees from 1972 to 1998 after joining the Board in 1953. In 1997, the Board of Trustees named the College’s school of engineering and sciences after him and the Alumni Association conferred honorary alumnus status to Hopeman.

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