Jacques Marescaux

Jacques Marescaux, born on 8 August 1948, is a French surgeon who holds the chair of digestive and endocrine surgery at the University Hospital in Strasbourg. He came from a family of academics and servicemen, with a father who taught histology at the University of Strasbourg. After finishing first in the residency examinations of 1971 he chose surgery, joined a research team on digestive diseases at INSERM, became chief resident in 1975, university professor of digestive surgery in 1980 and head of his hospital department in 1989. He is the founding director of IRCAD and of EITS, and a founding member of WeBSurg. He is best known for the Lindbergh Operation of 7 September 2001, in which he removed the gallbladder of a patient in Strasbourg while operating from New York, a first in telesurgery. He is also believed to be the first surgeon to remove a gallbladder through a natural orifice without any incision of the skin.