Research Leadership: B. Timothy Baxter, M.D.

This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony for UNMC’s 2016 Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator Award recipients.

• Name: B. Timothy Baxter, M.D.
• Title: Vice chairman and professor, UNMC Department of Surgery
• Joined UNMC: 1990
• Hometown: Canon City, Colo.

Research focus;
Abdominal aortic aneurysm

The best advice I could give a beginning researcher is work on a problem about which you are passionate.

Understand the process requires steady, hard work and persistence, while the rewards (i. e. paper acceptance, grants) are sporadic.

The toughest lesson I’ve learned is that not everyone is worth collaborating with. Don’t get embroiled with difficult collaborators. Research should and will be fun when you are working with the right people.

The best part of my job is working with the surgery residents and students in the laboratory and watching as their analytic skills progress. One day, you’re talking to someone who knows very little and a year or two later, they are expertly describing their work to an audience. Incredibly gratifying!

Three things you may not know about me

• I come from a large family, (seven brothers and sisters).
• Public speaking still makes me nervous.
• I love fixing up old things like vehicles and houses.