R. Lawrence Moss, M.D., John A. Persing, M.D., Robert T. Schultz, Ph.D.

Three appointments to endowed professorships were announced in May. R. Lawrence Moss, M.D., has been named the Robert Pritzker Professor of Pediatric Surgery. John A. Persing, M.D., has been named the Irving and Silik Polayes Professor of Plastic Surgery. Robert T. Schultz, Ph.D., was appointed the Harris Associate Professor of Psychology and Child Psychiatry.

Moss specializes in general, thoracic and laparoscopic children’s surgery, neonatal surgery and the separation of conjoined twins, as well as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. He is surgeon in chief at the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital and chief of pediatric surgery at the School of Medicine. He also serves as program director of the School of Medicine’s Fellowship in Pediatric Surgery. He joined the Yale faculty in 2002 after teaching at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and the Stanford University Medical Center.

Persing specializes in craniofacial surgery, with a particular interest in craniosynostosis, the premature fusing of cranial sutures, which often results in abnormal brain and skull growth. His clinical and research interests also include the treatment of craniofacial trauma; vascular malformations of the head and neck; cranial base tumors; and disorders of the brachial and lumbar plexuses and peripheral nerves. Persing joined the Yale faculty in 1992 as a professor of plastic surgery and neurosurgery and chief of the Section of Plastic Surgery, and as chief of plastic surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Schultz focuses his research on the biological bases of autism spectrum disorders. The director of the Yale Developmental Neuroimaging Program, Schultz also studies genetic forms of mental retardation, such as Williams syndrome, and a variety of other childhood psychiatric disorders. Schultz uses structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and detailed neuropsychological assessments to study brain anatomy and function in these disorders. Using fMRI, he and his colleagues are also mapping brain systems involved in the perception of human faces, facial expressions and inferences of social attribution in patients with autism and Williams syndrome. Schultz came to the Yale Child Study Center in 1994 on a fellowship. He is currently affiliated with both the Child Study Center and the Department of Diagnostic Radiology.