Dr. Halbreiner is the Director of Research in Cardiac Surgery and has been widely and nationally published in the field, including presentations at national conferences. He serves as the primary investigator (PI) in many international and national clinical trials as well as the PI for the largest multi-institutional collaborative research effort in cardiac surgery – Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN). Dr. Halbreiner earned his medical degree at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C. He completed his general surgery internship at Boston University Medical Center in Boston, Mass., and his residency at SUNY - Stony Brook in New York serving as administrative chief resident and as a research fellow in cardiac surgery. He then trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as administrative chief resident where he had a heavy focus on aortic surgery. He has held academic appointments as clinical instructor in surgery at SUNY - Stony Brook and at Case Western Reserve University Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He is currently an Associate Professor of Surgery at Drexel College of Medicine and has appointments as an Adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University through which he has ongoing NIH and State funded research with the Biomedical Engineering Department. He currently serves as the Director of the Aortic Center for AHN with expertise in complex aortic surgery and specialized care in patients with connective tissue disorders. He is a clinical leader in this field and performs both complex open-heart procedures as well as minimally invasive endovascular procedures for aortic diseases. The aortic center has joined efforts with other institutions across the country in treatment of aortic dissections through the International Registry for Aortic Diseases, through which Dr. Halbreiner is the PI. He is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons.