Dr. Sessler attended medical school at Columbia University, and subsequently completed pediatric and anesthesia residencies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently Michael Cudahy Professor and Chair of the Department of Outcomes Research at Cleveland Clinic.

The Outcomes Research Consortium (www.OR.org), which Dr. Sessler founded, includes more than 120 investigators in ten countries. Outcomes Research currently coordinates more than a hundred studies, including a dozen large, multi-center outcome trials. Dr. Sessler has published a book on therapeutic hypothermia and more than 600 full research papers; 200 of his papers were in Anesthesiology, and a dozen were in the New England Journal of Medicine or Lancet. His papers have been cited more than 25,000 times.

Dr. Sessler's has trained more than 100 research fellows, five of whom subsequently chaired anesthesia departments. He has given invited lectures at more than institutions and has been a principal or co-investigator on grants exceeding $35 million, more than half being from NIH and other peer-reviewed sources. Among his awards is a Fulbright Fellowship and the 2002 American Society of Anesthesiology Excellence in Research prize.

Dr.Sessler’s administrative work includes two stints as acting-chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Louisville. He was also Vice-dean and Associate Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Louisville, giving him responsibility for research throughout the Health Sciences Campus. During his five years at the University of Louisville, NIH funding to the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing each more than tripled.