Thomas Floyd, MD

Tom grew up outside of Philadelphia, attended Dickinson College, majoring in chemistry. He completed medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and an internship in surgery, followed by a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota. His first decade of clinical practice after residency was in private practice in Bangor and Ellsworth, ME. During the latter 6 years in private practice, he founded and ran his own company. In 1999 he pursued his true ambition and completed a fellowship in cardiothoracic anesthesiology and studied functional MRI in the department of neurology under John A. Detre, MD at the University of Pennsylvania. Following this, he remained as an attending CVT anesthesiologist for nearly a decade at Penn, and honed his interest in the development of novel MR imaging technologies for both vascular and brain imaging. He has applied these developments to studies in vascular disease, stroke, and cognitive impairment. Appointments at Penn were followed with 7 years at both Stony Brook University and then the University of Texas Southwestern. His research currently focuses on the development of novel imaging technologies using diffuse light for the monitoring and management of both spinal cord injury and cerebral ischemia. He is also very interested in the role of acute hypoxia in exacerbating aging-related cognitive dysfunction in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease, heart failure, and anemia. He has been consistently funded by the NIH for the last 20 years and is looking forward to mentoring new faculty at UVA with similar interests.

He spent nearly 15 years in the Navy, supporting the US Marine Corps as both a battalion surgeon for an arctic warfare unit and as a battery surgeon for a heavy artillery unit, retiring finally at the age of 54. His hobbies include trying to keep up with his sons, running his Siberian huskies, fishing, winter camping, skiing, snowshoeing, fishing, hunting, and boating. He and his family have long had a home near Acadia National Park in Maine and cruise between the Chesapeake and the Canadian Maritimes.