July 1, 2025
Author: Bram N. Harris
FAER is pleased to recognize Thomas J. Ebert, MD, PhD, as this year’s Friend of FAER Honoree. Dr. Ebert will be celebrated at the Friends of FAER Reception at ANESTHESIOLOGY® in San Antonio this October. As part of this honor, FAER will present Dr. Ebert a book of photos and tributes at the reception. We encourage any who have benefited from Dr. Ebert’s guidance and friendship in their career or life to submit photos and tributes to be considered for inclusion in his Friend of FAER photobook to [email protected] by July 18, 2025.
First awarded in 2021, the Friend of FAER Honor recognizes individuals who have had broad impact on the world of anesthesiology research and its investigators, including those who have served as a resource or mentor for a substantial number of up-and-coming anesthesiology researchers.
We are certain that anyone who has had the pleasure to work with – or even simply sit down and talk to – Dr. Ebert would agree that he is a true friend to not just FAER, but to anesthesiology and its researchers as a whole. On top of his expansive research work, including grant funding from organizations including the American Heart Association (AHA), Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF), International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), VA Merit Awards, and FAER itself, Dr. Ebert has offered his expertise as a mentor and supervisor to numerous students, residents, and fellows.
“It is one thing to find reward in mentoring students and residents in their pursuit of knowledge and new skills. It is quite another reward to support research opportunities of the very same group of motivated learners. I have had great joy over my career from serving as the primary mentor on three FAER mentored research grants and guiding numerous MSARF recipients in their summer studies.”
- Thomas J. Ebert, MD, PhD, 2025 Friend of FAER Honoree
Time and knowledge are not the only things he has offered our specialty. Dr. Ebert is also recognized for his generous philanthropic giving to FAER and is a member of the Foundation’s Alan D. Sessler, MD, Society. Named for founding physician and former Board President of FAER Dr. Alan Sessler, this society recognizes donors who have achieved $10,000 or more in lifetime giving to FAER, a milestone Dr. Ebert has long since surpassed. He was not satisfied with only his own giving, though. Dr. Ebert has long served on FAER’s Development Committee, working to inspire others to support future anesthesiology investigators by donating to FAER.
“Now I find great pleasure in supporting FAER through my personal donations as well as my time on the FAER Development Committee. If I think of this commitment as an investment of time and energy for a meaningful cause, the return on the investment is unmeasurable. The personal reward is large. I hope others will consider a gift of time or money to FAER. I am confident that they will sense the incredible ROI from supporting FAER and their mission to advance our specialty by developing the next generation of clinician-scientists.”
Dr. Ebert graduated from Ripon College in 1975 with a BA in Biology. However, his time there would only prove one fleeting – if important – step along his journey. The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) was to be his true longtime home. Recruited by past Chair John P. Kampine, MD, PhD, it was at MCW that Dr. Ebert planted his roots and, in time, grew into the celebrated anesthesiologist, mentor, and scientist we know today. Awarded an MS in Physiology at MCW in 1978, he followed this with a PhD in the same field in 1980. He continued to expand his knowledge with Postdoc work in 1981 and 1982. Throughout his early days there, Dr. Ebert’s focus gravitated around cardiovascular physiology and the heart. This inclination remained true throughout his career and helped shape the research he would come to pursue.
In 1983, he was awarded his MD at MCW and began his residency in anesthesiology at the College’s affiliated hospitals that same year. He was then appointed Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology in 1987. Over his decades at MCW Dr. Ebert continued to grow in this role. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1990 and elevated to full Professor status in 1996, earning tenure and continuing in this position through 2021. This was not to be the totality of his professional appointments, though.
In addition to his professorship, Dr. Ebert also served as MCW’s Vice President (2000-2001) and subsequently President (2001-2002) of Faculty Council. The Department of Anesthesiology similarly saw the scope of his responsibilities grow over the years. He was appointed the Department’s Vice Chair for Education in 2003 and Program Director in 2004, roles he would serve in through 2015. All the while, Dr. Ebert was simultaneously working as staff anesthesiologist for the Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, on top of an adjunct appointment to MCW’s Department of Physiology.
Success and growth were of course not limited solely to Dr. Ebert’s faculty positions. We cannot speak about him and his contributions to anesthesiology without recognizing his extensive research work within the theatre of academia. Over the course of his career, he has published 37 book chapters, 139 journal articles, and nearly 180 abstracts – an abstract count that would no doubt be even higher had he not stopped tracking the count years ago.
This considerable collection of publications is complimented by decades of unbroken research grant funding from industry and state, national, and federal funding sources, with nearly $2 million in funding from the NIH alone. His work has helped contribute to the understanding of IV and volatile anesthetics, shedding new light on these important areas of inquiry. FAER is honored to count itself among those that have supported Dr. Ebert’s research endeavors too, awarding him a Research in Education Grant (REG) in 2018 for his project “Beyond Milestones; using Holistic Ratings to Evaluate Trainee Performance.”
Dr. Ebert did not restrict his scholarly efforts and travels to familiar territory as his work continued to garner interest from the anesthesiology and scientific community at large. 1982 to 2020 saw him make regular trips across the breadth of the US, presenting on anesthesiology and his work and serving as a visiting professor for universities and organizations across the nation. These ranged from a multitude of State Anesthesia meetings to the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology (SCA), from Loma Linda University in California to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Maryland, and many, many more in between.
This commitment to sharing his knowledge would regularly take Dr. Ebert beyond the confines of the US. He made numerous international trips to present to his fellow anesthesiologists around the world. Beginning with his first international presentation on “Sevoflurane: A New Era in Inhalational Anesthesia" to the European Society of Anesthesiologists at their annual meeting in Paris in 1995, to his multi-country tour of southeast Asia with Abbott International in 2012, his speaking engagements brought him to countries as far afield as Sweden, Colombia, Japan, and South Africa, to name but a few.
Dr. Ebert further leveraged his passion for helping guide and educate his fellow and aspiring anesthesiologists through FAER’s grants and programs. He was appointed to FAER’s Academy of Research Mentors in Anesthesiology (ARMA) in 2008 for his lauded success in nurturing anesthesiology’s physician-scientists. In addition to his own 2018 REG, Dr. Ebert also offered his talents as a mentor to Jutta Novalija, MD, PhD, FASA, on her Mentored Research Training Grant (MRTG) in 2008; to Meredith C. Adams, MD, FASA, on her REG in 2015; and to Julie K. Freed, MD, PhD, FAHA, FCVS, on her MRTG in 2017. He found yet another natural home for his mentoring prowess in FAER’s Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellowship (MSARF). From 2008 to 2023, he served as Coordinator for the MSARF program at MCW, supporting his fellow faculty mentors and shepherding many hopeful future anesthesiology investigators as they took their first steps on their research journey.
Even before his involvement with FAER’s grants and programs, Dr. Ebert had already made his belief in the Foundation’s work clear as a donor as early as 1995. He has consistently maintained this support through annual gifts over the past 30 years. As dependable as his giving was, Dr. Ebert understood that a single donor would not be enough to maintain the Foundation’s work. So, he strove to ensure he was far from the only donor. This took the form of offering matching gifts around FAER’s annual appeals. For each dollar given, Dr. Ebert would offer to match with a donation of his own – often pitching this to his friends and colleagues as “Help spend Tom’s money!”
The pitch worked. Many others, inspired by his giving – or looking to dip into Dr. Ebert’s wallet for a good cause – would come forward to make donations of their own. His devotion to championing support for FAER was what brought him to the Foundation’s Development Committee in 2021. Fellow donors weren’t the only ones he motivated, though. FAER saw the success he’d achieved through these fun, friendly, and tongue-and-cheek fundraising efforts. And so, inspired by Dr. Ebert’s success, FAER introduced the Academic Giving Competition (AGC) in 2022 as a way for academic anesthesiology departments and their faculty to have some fun while supporting anesthesiology’s future investigators. The AGC has since become an annual offering and been met with a greater and greater outpouring of generosity from new and returning donors each year.
It goes without saying that there is “more to the man” than only Dr. Ebert’s professional ventures. Husband to his loving wife Tracy and proud father to a son and three daughters, he has entered the reduced clinical effort phase of his career as an Adjunct Professor of Anesthesiology at MCW and a part-time staff at the VA hospital where he continues with studies on neuromuscular monitoring and autonomic effects of sugammadex. He and his wife enjoy more time at their lake cabin near Rhinelander WI. An avid college and professional sports fan delighted to chat about any number of teams or games, Dr. Ebert enjoys tennis, golf, and personal training sessions.
This highlight does not have adequate space to fully capture the myriad accomplishments Dr. Ebert achieved over his career. However, a throughline should be apparent in the medley of appointments and activities shared here. Namely, his unwavering dedication to the betterment of anesthesiology through not only his own research, but also by helping nurture future generations of physicians and scientists through thorough education, thoughtful mentoring, and philanthropic giving. It is thanks in part to this inspiring hallmark of Dr. Ebert’s character that his impact on our specialty will reach far into the future.
The propagation of scientific acuity and new knowledge is fundamental to any specialty’s growth. By guiding the up-and-coming investigators who will stand at the forefront of discovery in anesthesiology and ensuring they have access to early-career support key to success, he has helped foster not only the anesthesiology scientists following immediately in his footsteps, but those treading this path for years to come. For this and his multitude of contributions, FAER is truly grateful to Dr. Ebert, and proud to consider him a Friend of FAER.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Tom Ebert on his selection as the 2025 Friend of FAER Honoree. We hope you enjoy these tributes from some of the many he has impacted and worked with over his career.
“Tom Ebert has been one of the most consistent and important supporters of FAER across our specialty. From his service on the ASA Committee on Research, to FAER’s Development Committee, to the recent Academic Giving Competition, Tom has been a lead advocate for FAER and its mission.” – Roger A. Johns, MD, MHS, PhD
“Tom was truly an ‘all-arounder:’ superb clinician, great educator, and noted researcher. It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with him for so many years and still see that undimmed Ebert enthusiasm. – Cathy Drexler, MD
“Tom Ebert exemplifies the attributes of scholar and gentleman. And he is an impossible tennis opponent, because he has wide reach and no backhand (he plays with 2 forehand strokes – switching his racquet between left hand and right hand).” – Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD
“Tom Ebert is the quintessential academician. He has served as my role model, residency program director, mentor, colleague, and friend. Thank you for introducing me to the specialty of Anesthesiology, to the wonderful organizations that support our specialty, and for letting me tag along with you to all the meetings. You are an inspiration to us all.” – Julie K. Freed, MD, PhD
The Friend of FAER Honor is awarded annually, with honorees selected by a cohort of FAER leaders. Previous honorees include:
Curated by: BH
Last updated by: BH
Date of last update: June 30, 2025
email: [email protected]
site: FAER.org
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