Two new faculty members join Department of Surgery

Charles Brendler of Johns Hopkins University and Robert Walton of the University of Massachusetts have joined the University faculty as Professors in Surgery. Brendler has been appointed Section Chief of Urology, and Walton has been appointed Section Chief of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery.

Brendler is a nationally recognized authority on urologic malignancies, especially prostate and bladder cancer, and on impotence. At Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine he was associate professor of urology and director of the male sexual dysfunction clinic.

Brendler is an expert on the medical, hormonal and surgical care of patients with prostate cancer and is a pioneer in the use of nerve-sparing surgery to preserve potency in patients undergoing removal of the prostate. He has also been involved in research on the evaluation and treatment of erectile dysfunction. He is the author or co-author of more than 45 journal articles, nearly 50 book chapters and four surgical teaching videos.

After receiving his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1966, Brendler taught high school chemistry and biology and then served for four years in the U.S. Air Force. He earned his M.D. from the University of Virginia in 1974 and completed his internship and residency at Duke University Medical Center in 1979. After serving for one year as a clinical assistant in urology at Cardiff Royal Infirmary and University Hospital of Wales, he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 1980. The next year he was also appointed chief of urology at Baltimore City Hospitals.

Brendler is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Urology, was an assistant editor for the textbook Urologic Surgery and is a member of the advisory board for the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse.

Walton, a pioneer in reconstructive microsurgery for patients suffering from accidents affecting the face or hands or from tumors of the head and neck, was professor and chairman of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

The author or co-author of more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 30 book chapters and five instructional videos, Walton is an authority on trauma, wound management and reconstructive microsurgery for injuries to the hands or face. His research interests are in the area of tissue engineering for reconstruction of body parts. He served from 1990 to 1992 as director of the American Association for Hand Surgery and from 1991 to 1992 as president of the New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons.

Walton received his B.A. in 1968 and his M.D. in 1972 from the University of Kansas. He completed a Halsted surgical fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1974, followed by a four-year residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery and general surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He joined the Yale faculty in 1975 as an associate, then instructor, in surgery. He served as assistant professor of surgery at the University of California-San Francisco and chief of plastic surgery at San Francisco General Hospital from 1979 to 1983, and he joined the University of Massachusetts faculty in 1983 as associate professor and chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery. He was appointed professor there in 1985.

Walton has also served since 1988 as director of plastic surgery and since 1990 as grantor of the foundation Proyecto MIRA, dedicated to the treatment of children in Puerto Rico with facial deformities. He has done charitable work at hospitals in Haiti, American Samoa and Uganda.