Professor Chao-Long Chen is a pioneer liver transplant surgeon who performed the first successful liver transplantation in Asia in 1984, and by 2016, has accomplished 1500 more. He is a graduate of the Kaohsiung Medical University and did his surgical training at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. He later obtained fellowship training in liver transplantation with the renowned Professor Thomas Starzl at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is a recipient of various honors and distinctions, both locally and internationally. He became Professor of Surgery in 1993 and subsequently has been bestowed with Honorary PhD and Professor by acclaimed international universities.
In 1994, he performed the first living donor liver transplantation in Taiwan and was bestowed with the National Award for Outstanding Contribution in Science and Technology in 1996. He did the first split liver transplantation in Asia in 1997. He started the adult living donor liver transplantation in Taiwan in 1999. Further, he performed the first dual graft living donor liver transplantation in Taiwan in 2002, and the first segment 2 monosegment living donor liver transplantation in Taiwan in 2013.
He became Superintendent of the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in 2003-2015 and has become Superintendent Emeritus since October 2015. He has published more than 400 SCI-cited scientific articles and has lectured in more than 300 international and overseas congresses, and honorary and visiting professorships. He was appointed in the advisory board of Center for Asia Pacific Policy of USA based RAND Corporation in 2016. He is an associate editor of the American Journal of Transplantation and serves in the editorial board of Annals of Surgery, Transplantation, Liver Transplantation, etc. In 2007, he was elected as Academician of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering. He remains director of one of the leading global centers in living donor liver transplantation.