Jacob C. Langer, MD, FRCSC
Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery
Hospital for Sick Children
Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto

Dr. Jacob C. Langer was educated and trained at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He did research fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco and McMaster University, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health, the Medical Research Council of Canada, and the McLaughlin Foundation.

Dr. Langer was Assistant Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at McMaster University and a pediatric surgeon at the Children’s Hospital at Chedoke-McMaster from 1989 to 1992. He then moved to St. Louis and became Associate Professor or Surgery and Pediatrics at Washington University and a pediatric surgeon at St. Louis Children’s Hospital from 1992 to 1999. He came back to Canada in 1999 to become Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto, and Chief of the Division of General and Thoracic Surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children, a position that he held until 2012. He was also the inaugural holder of the Robert M. Filler Chair in Pediatric Surgery.

In 1995, Dr. Langer won the prestigious Innovative Scientist of the Year award from the St. Louis Academy of Science, and in 2007 was named the Canadian James IV traveling fellow. HE has written over 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals and over 50 book chapters on a variety of topics. His primary interest involve the natural history and management of prenatally diagnosed congenital anomalies, (particularly abdominal wall defects and congenital diaphragmatic hernia), the development of new ways of managing children with Hirschsprung disease and other intestinal disorders, and new advances in the field of minimally invasive pediatric surgery. He has traveled widely to operate and to lecture on these and other topics in pediatric surgery. He has been on the faculty of the Washington University Institute of Minimally Invasive Surgery and the McMaster University Centre for Minimal Access Surgery, and has edited a textbook on Minimal Access Surgery in Children. He has been on the Medical Advisory Boards of the American Pseudo-obstruction and Hirschsprung’s Disease Society and the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Society. He has been a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, Pediatric Endosurgery and Innovative Techniques, and Pediatric Surgery International. He has been the Chair of the American Pediatric Surgical Association Informatics and Nominating committees, and has also sat on the Fetus and Newborn Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Practice, Fetal Therapy, Program, and Critical Care Committees of APSA. He has served as a Director and Chaired several committees of the Canadian Association of Paediatric Surgeons and is currently the President-elect of that organization.

Dr. Langer is married to Ferne Sherkin-Langer, a pediatric nurse, author, and realtor. They have three children and one granddaughter.