Dr. John G. Kennedy is the director of the Foot and Ankle Center at NYU Langone and was previously the attending orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery, as well as assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Kennedy also founded and co-chairs the International Congress on Cartilage Repair of the Ankle, a multinational think tank instrumental in changing cartilage treatment strategies around the world.

A native of Dublin, Kennedy’s medical career stretches over 25 years and is buttressed by a commitment to teaching, researching, and administering quality care dedicated to sports injuries of the lower limbs.

His interest in basic science research was initiated as a medical student at the Royal College of Surgeons. As a result, in his intern year he began his first postdoctoral thesis investigating the effects of oxygen-free radical scavengers on tourniquet induced ischemia. This formed the basis of his M.M.S. Following this, he continued to be involved in basic science at the Enders Laboratory at Harvard Medical School under Dr. Melvin Glimcher, where he defended his masters in surgery thesis on new composites in bone regeneration. Shortly after that, he was instrumental in setting up a basic science laboratory at University College Dublin as part of his role as senior lecturer in orthopedic surgery.

Kennedy has published over 190 peerreviewed articles in addition to countless podium presentations and other citations of his research. As part of the international collaboration between Ireland and the U.S., Kennedy received an honorary degree from the faculty of sports and exercise medicine in the Royal College of Surgeons. This was in part due to the pipeline of medical students and residents that travel from the R.C.S.I. to his office in New York each year to experience the different medical culture and collaborate in innovation between the two countries. ♦