Nathaniel J. Soper, MD

Nathaniel J. Soper, MD, FACS, MAMES is the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix. In addition, he serves as the Physician Executive for the General Surgery Service Line for Banner Health and B–UMCP. Dr. Soper is a trailblazer in minimally invasive surgery, foregut surgery and surgical education. He was one of the first academic surgeons performing laparoscopic surgery, which has defined his subsequent career. His research interests include physiology of the esophagus and esophagogastric junction, ultrasound and the evaluation of gastrointestinal tract motility. His clinical interests including applications of minimally invasive surgery, GERD, paraesophageal hiatal hernia, gallstone disease and choledocholitithiasis.

As the department chair, Dr. Soper will lead clinical excellence, academic development and educational innovation.

Dr. Soper has published more than 200 manuscripts, edited 17 textbooks and authored more than 100 book chapters. Dr. Soper is on the editorial boards of Annals of Surgery, Surgical Endoscopy, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Surgical Innovation. He has consistently been named in the Best Doctors in America. He’s a member of numerous professional societies and is past president of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, the International Society of Digestive Surgery, the Central Surgical Association and the St. Louis Surgical Society.

Dr. Soper graduated from the University of Iowa School of Medicine, he completed a General Surgery residency, including a year of laboratory investigation under the mentorship of Layton F. Rikkers, at the University of Utah Hospitals in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Soper then spent two years as an NIH-funded fellow at the Digestive Disease Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, mentored by Keith Kelly and Michael Sarr. He was previously on the faculty at the Washington University School of Medicine and, more recently, Northwestern University, where he served as Chairman and Director of the general surgery residency.

American College of Surgeons
American College of Surgeons Board of Governors
American Surgical Association
International Society of Surgery
Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES)
Society of Clinical Surgery
Society for Surgery for the Alimentary Tract
Society of University Surgeons
Southern Surgical Association