K Robert Shen, M.D.

Dr. Shen is a Professor of Surgery and Consultant in the Division of General Thoracic Surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Dr. Shen's clinical practice and expertise spans the breadth of thoracic surgery and includes a specific interest in the treatment of benign and malignant esophageal disease.

Dr. Shen received his undergraduate degree (A.B.) cum laude from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1987 and then received his M.D. degree with High Honors from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut in 1995. He completed a residency in General Surgery at the Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts in 2002, which included a two year research fellowship at Harvard Medical School in gastrointestinal physiology. He then completed a residency in Thoracic Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts in 2004. Dr. Shen is certified by the American Board of Surgery as well as the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

After completing his General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery training Dr. Shen joined the Thoracic Surgery faculty at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2005. He joined the Division of General Thoracic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in 2007.

Dr. Shen served as the Program Director of the Mayo Clinic Thoracic Surgery Residency Program from 2013-2023 and the Advanced Thoracic Surgery Fellowship Program since 2013. Dr. Shen has served in numerous national leadership positions in Thoracic Surgery. He is a member of the ACGME Thoracic Surgery Review Committee (RC). He has served on numerous committees and working groups for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), and was the Chair of the STS Workforce on Annual Meeting in 2016. Dr. Shen is also a member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, and has been a Section Editor for SESATS XI and XII and XIII. He also is a reviewer for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, The Journal of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery and Diseases of the Esophagus.

He is author of more than 145 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, The Journal of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, The European Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Thoracic Surgery Clinics, Chest, and Diseases of the Esophagus, as well as the author of 13 textbook chapters.