Erle Austin, M.D., director or pediatric heart surgery in UofL's Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, has been named president-elect of the Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society.

The national organization is dedicated to the advancement of congenital heart surgery techniques. Its membership is comprised of some of the nation's leading cardiac, cardiothoracic and cardiovascular surgeons.

Austin joined the University of Louisville in 1989 after serving as chief of cardiothoracic surgery and vice chairman of surgery at East Carolina University School of Medicine in Greenville, N.C.,

He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School who received his general and cardiothoracic training at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. Austin's fellowship training in pediatric cardiac surgery was conducted at Children's Hospital in Boston Massachusetts.

He is an active member of several national and international organizations including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, American College of Cardiology, American College of Surgeons, Congenital Heart Surgeons Society, International Society of Heart Transplantation and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Austin also has been named as one of The Best Doctors in America and is certified by the American Board of General Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

Austin's practice includes adult and pediatric heart surgery with a special interest in neonatal cardiac reconstruction and adult congenital heart repairs.

Besides his appointment as a professor of surgery at UofL, Austin is director of cardiovascular surgery at Kosair Children's Hospital.