Ronald Tompkins

Ronald G. Tompkins, MD, ScD, was a leading trauma and burn specialist physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, a leading ME/CFS researcher, and Chief Medical Officer at the Open Medicine Foundation until he passed away in 2022.

Tompkins, along with Dr. Wenzhong Xiao, led the Harvard ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center, whose funding was provided by the Open Medicine Foundation. After Dr Tompkins's sudden death in 2022 a tribute from the Open Medicine Foundation referred to him as a "dear friend to all" who was "driven by a fierce compassion for others" and had a "steadfast dedication to finding answers for millions suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and related diseases.

Positions

 * Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School


 * Division Chief, Surgery, Science and Bioengineering, Division of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital


 * Founding Director, The Institute for Bioengineering and Biotechnology, a division in Surgery at Mass General


 * Founding Director, Center for Engineering in Medicine, Mass General
 * Director of the American Board of Surgery in 1994
 * Chief of Staff Emeritus at Shriners Hospitals for Children―Boston
 * Co-leader of the Harvard ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center

Education

 * BA, Chemistry, Tulane University, 1972
 * MD, Medicine, Tulane University, 1976
 * SM, Chemical Engineering, MIT, 1983
 * ScD, Chemical Engineering, MIT, 1983
 * Honorary M.A. from Harvard University

Boards and committees

 * Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Open Medicine Foundation


 * Member of the Working Group which offers their expertise and resources to the ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford University

Talks and interviews

 * Sep 29, 2018, Second Annual Community Symposium on the Molecular Basis of ME/CFS 2018; talk title - ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Harvard - (Video)
 * Jan 14 2019, Inflammation, Neural Function and ME/CFS Episode 103 of MECFS Alert
 * May 31, 2019, Harvard Plans for Clinical Research into ME/CFS (Video), 14th Invest in ME Conference

Learn more

 * OMF announcement and tribute - Facebook
 * Massachusetts General Hospital bio page
 * Obituary