 I always knew I wanted to be a physician. I come from a family of physicians. Medicine was a household conversation for us. Pursuing a career as a cardiothoracic surgeon was all I could think of as early as I remember. I was fortunate enough to train at some of the world's best institutions with some of the world's best surgeons. Those operations sparked my interest in taking care of patients with the most complex of problems of the lung and trachea. In addition to lung cancer, there are a significant number of patients who have significant narrowing or blockages of the central airway and the air passages. My lab is particularly focused in trying to solve this problem. We have built a world-class airway institute and airway program and hope to be the regional referral center for the most complex patients with narrowing of the trachea and the bronchi. The operations that we perform are truly one of a kind. We have patients who visit us from the region and in fact nationally and internationally. We're able to offer operations and treatments that are in most cases non-available in most major medical institutions. It is an unbelievably gratifying feeling for me as a surgeon to be able to affect care that has an almost immediate impact on patient quality and the life of the patient.