SLU Alumnus Featured in Time Magezine
St. Lawrence University Alum Dr. Robert Montgomery ’82, P’14, is on Time Magazine’s “TIME100: The Most Influential People of 2025” list after pioneering breakthroughs in organ transplantation.
Montgomery was not expecting to receive the honor. “This was a total surprise. It’s been fun,” he was quoted saying in a St. Lawrence Magazine article titled “Surgeon. Survivor. Humanitarian. Laurentian.”
Montgomery’s most notable innovations and achievements were related to xenotransplantation, a process that saves lives with pig organs that are genetically modified to be compatible with human patiewnts in need of a transplant, according to St. Lawrence Magazine. This breakthrough helps significantly increase the supply of available organs for transplants, which can save patients by reducing how much they must wait for a donation. Montgomery gave a woman a xenotransplant in 2024, which was successful enough for her to become “the longest-living recipient of a genetically engineered pig kidney,” according to his biography in TIME100 by Kevin Longino.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave xenotransplants the go-ahead for more clinical trials in February 2025. “Dr. Montgomery’s work has indelibly shaped the future of transplantation,” Longino wrote. Some of Montgomery’s other notable achievements were his strategy for conducting domino paired donations and his invention of laparoscopic kidney donation, which mitigates risk and pain during the operation via smaller incisions when extracting kidneys from live donors.
Montgomery has traveled to Ukraine several times during the current conflict with Russia to provide his medical expertise, as well as giving and facilitating guidance virtually from the United States and helping Ukrainian doctors come to New York so that they can receive training to bring back home. He plans to return to the country in the future. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Montgomery the Order of Merit Medal out of appreciation for his efforts.
Currently Director of New York University’s Langone Transplant Institute, Montgomery performed over 2,000 kidney transplants during his 25 years as director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He received a heart transplant in 2018, opting to have one of the first ever hepatitis C-positive transplants. In doing so, Montgomery proved that organs infected with hepatitis C no longer need to be thrown out now that the virus can be combatted with new medications, according to St. Lawrence Magazine.
Montgomery credits much of his inspiration to his time at SLU. He said that his professors were impactful in his choice to pursue medicine, and the student body was also influential in his growth as an empathetic and altruistically driven medical professional. When Montgomery’s brother, Richard ’74, died of heart complications, Richard’s SLU friends aided in the creation of a research foundation named after him.