Dr. Stolar, the Rudolph N. Schullinger, MD, Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and from medical school at Georgetown University. He completed his General Surgery training at the University of Illinois in 1976, and was awarded a fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of the Babies & Children's Hospital of New York in 1982. Dr. Stolar is board-certified in both General and Pediatric Surgery. He is currently the Director of Pediatric Surgery, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian. Dr. Stolar is Associate Director of the Fellowship Training Program in Pediatric Surgery.

Dr. Stolar has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, with a special emphasis on newborn respiratory failure. He has authored multiple book chapters on childhood cancer and congenital diaphragmatic hernia. He maintains an active research laboratory, which focuses on the normal and abnormal formation of vascular networks in the lungs during embryonic development and early infancy. He is also interested in clinical outcomes after neonatal surgery.

Dr. Stolar is internationally recognized for his expertise in the management of congenital diaphragmatic hernia. He has had a central role in developing strategies of life support (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation, or ECMO) for children with overwhelming respiratory failure. His clinical interests, however, span the broad range of pediatric general surgery, with special emphasis on newborns and children with cancer. Dr. Stolar has participated in the national Children's Cancer Group, and has a special expertise in managing children with tumors of germ cell origin and other solid tumors of childhood.

Dr. Zitsman graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in natural sciences, and received his M.D. degree from Tufts University Medical School in 1976. He received his training in General Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, and completed his Pediatric Surgery training at the Babies & Children's Hospital of New York. He is Board-Certified in General Surgery and holds a Certificate of Special Competence in Pediatric Surgery.

Dr. Zitsman has maintained an active clinical practice in pediatric surgery in the New York area since 1985. He has been appointed Associate Clinical Professor in the department of Surgery at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University. His areas of interest include applications of minimal access techniques in pediatric surgery, chest wall deformities, and obesity surgery in adolescents. He has performed over 500 minimal access procedures, including appendectomy, anti-reflux surgery, thoracic procedures, pull-through for Hirschsprung’s disease, and evaluation of chronic abdominal pain. Dr. Zitsman is Director of Minimal Access Surgery at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian. In addition, he is the Director of the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery at MSCHONYP.

Dr. Rothenberg is the Chief of Pediatric Surgery a and the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, Co. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado. He is a world leader in the field of endoscopic surgery in infants and children and has pioneered many of the procedures using minimally invasive techniques.

Dr. Rothenberg completed medical school and general surgery residency at the University of Colorado in Denver. He then spent a year in England doing a fellowship in General Thoracic Surgery prior to returning to the states where he completed a two year Pediatric Surgery fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He returned to Colorado in 1992 where he has been in private practice for the last 15 years.

Dr. Rothenberg was one of the founding members of the International Pediatric Surgical Group (IPEG) and is it’s recent past-president. He was also the Chair of the Pediatric Committee and on the Board of Directors for SAGES (The Society of American Gastr-intestinal Endoscopic Surgeons). He has authored over 100 publications on minimally invasive surgery in children and has given over 200 lectures on the subject nationally and internationally. He is also an editor for the Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques.

Dr. Rothenberg has been married to his wife Susan for 25 years and has three children Jessica, Catherine, and Zachary. He is an avid outdoorsman and spends most of his free time in the mountains of Colorado skiing, hiking, biking, and fishing.