Mehmet Oz Biography and Photos

Mehmet Oz (born June 11, 1960) is a cardiothoracic surgeon and an award-winning author. He became famous for his frequent appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as appearances on Larry King, CNN, and numerous other networks.

Oz was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Turkish parents. His father was Prof. Dr. Mustafa Öz. He is married to author and Reiki master Lisa Oz and they have four children Daphne, Arabella, Zoe, and Oliver.

He was educated at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1982 he received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University. In 1986 he obtained a joint MD and MBA degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Wharton School.

Oz is Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Columbia University. He directs the Heart Assist Device Program and is a founder of the Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. His research interests include heart replacement surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and healthcare policy. He has authored more than 350 original publications, book chapters, abstracts, and books and has received several patents.

Oz is the Founder and Chairman of HealthCorps a non-profit organization that pays a small stipend to recent college graduates to spend two years in high schools mentoring students about health, nutrition, and fitness.

Oz has served as a director of Siga Technologies since April 2001. Siga is a biotechnology company that designs and develops novel countermeasures to prevent and treat serious infectious diseases, with an emphasis on biological warfare defense. SIGA’s leading program is ST-246, an oral therapeutic agent active against orthopoxviruses including smallpox. Additional programs target arenaviruses such as Lassa fever, filoviruses such as Ebola and Marburg, flaviviruses such as Dengue fever, and other category A diseases.

He serves on the Trustees Advisory Council of the OneVoice Movement, a non-profit organization that strives to empower moderate Israelis and Palestinians to take a more assertive role in resolving the conflict.

Oz has been influenced by many people, including the ideas of the Swedish scientist, philosopher, and Christian theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. He recently wrote in Spirituality and Health Magazine that "As I came into contact with Swedenborg's many writings, I began to understand Swedenborg's profound insights and how they applied directly to my life". He mentions Swedenborg's ideas that marriage lasts to eternity, everyone has a purpose in this world, God is love, and Swedenborg's answers to "Why do bad things happen?". He is an investigator in Energy Medicine (ie. meditative medicine, not to be mistaken with metabolic sciences)