Past Leadership
Throughout the last century, leaders at the Brady Urological Institute have helped shape the future of urological care through groundbreaking scientific discoveries and the development of new diagnostic tools and surgical techniques.
Past Directors
-
Dr. Allan Partin served as the Jakurski Family Director of The Brady Urological Institute, Urologist-in-Chief for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Director of the Department of Urology for 17 years.
Partin’s research earned the British Association of Urological Surgeons’ distinguished St. Paul’s Medal and the American Urological Association’s Gold Cystoscope Award and Distinguished Service Award. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Mississippi, Partin was at Johns Hopkins for nearly 40 years: he earned his M.D. at the School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in pharmacology and molecular sciences. He did his residency at Hopkins and then joined The Brady as an associate professor in 1995.
Under Partin’s leadership, The Brady doubled its research space, and undergone significant expansion with projects such as the world-renowned Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute, and new clinical space at the Green Spring Station Pavilion III.
He is known for developing the Partin Tables, which are used for predicting the prognosis for prostate cancer, and for his work developing several innovative tests to identify and track prostate cancer, including the Prostate Health Index.
He trained over 45 residents, including many women and people from underrepresented minority groups. He also has edited numerous urological textbooks and journals, and authored more than 600 scientific articles, publications, and presentations.
Partin was a member of the American Cancer Society, American Medical Association, American Urological Association, Society for Basic Urologic Research, Society of Endourology, Society of Urologic Oncology, American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons, and several other professional organizations.He served on the advisory council of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, the infonet editorial board, and the prostate cancer advisory board of the American Cancer Society. He has also been the panel chairman of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the research council of the American Urological Association, in addition to other positions.
-
Dr. Patrick Walsh is best known for a monumental contribution to patient care and urologic surgery – the development of the nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy, a technique that protects a man’s potency and continence. His dedication to scientific inquiry has yielded a succession of other major contributions, with the latter portion of his career dedicated to elucidating the genetic basis of prostatic cancer. He served as the Director of the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins for 30 years. During this time he trained 62 residents: 87% went on to careers in academic urology and 23 became directors of major university departments.
Patrick C. Walsh received his bachelors and medical degrees from Case Western Reserve University, and gained further training in Surgery (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital), Pediatric Surgery (Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Boston), Urology (University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA]), and Endocrinology (UCLA). His scholarly contributions include 15 years on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine and 25 years as editor-in-chief of Campbell’s Textbook of Urology, renamed Campbell Walsh in his honor. With Janet Worthington, he co-authored best-selling books for lay people, notably The Prostate: A Guide for Men and the Women Who Love Them (1995, 1997) and Dr. Patrick Walsh’s Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer (2001, 2007, 2012, 2018, 2023). He is past president of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and the Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons.
Dr. Walsh has been abundantly recognized through many prestigious awards: membership in the National Academy of Medicine (1995); the Charles F. Kettering Medal from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for “the most outstanding recent contributions to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer” (1996); designation as National Physician of the Year for Clinical Excellence by America’s Top Doctors® (2007); the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine (2007) for contributions to prostate cancer; and the Francis Amory Prize, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2012). His many honors bestowed in this country are echoed by international awards from professional societies in Ireland, England, the Netherlands, Australia, Korea, China, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Belgium and Greece.
-
Dr. William Scott is credited with introducing basic science to the field of urology. His ability to fuse patient care with research transformed how urological conditions were understood and treated.
His approach to urology is best summarized by longtime colleague Don Coffey, who noted: “They gave you a key to the OR, a key to the laboratory, a key to the library, and you were told to ‘come back in four years and tell me what you learned.’”
Under his leadership, education evolved at the Brady Urological Institute. Residents were expected to take responsibility for their own education; exhibit initiative, dedication and drive for excellence; and seek achievement. Dr. Scott was a passionate teacher who knew all of his residents, their spouses and their children.
-
Dr. Hugh Hampton Young is widely regarded as the father of modern urology. Among many groundbreaking milestones, he is credited with beginning the country's premier urology residency and achieving the first-ever cure for prostate cancer—with radical perineal prostatectomy, a surgical procedure he invented.
Dr. Young was a visionary of the field: Long before the importance of early detection was widely known, he advocated for screening. He developed novel techniques to remove cancer and was among the first to use radiation therapy to treat urological diseases.
With the help of one grateful patient, Jim Buchanan Brady, Dr. Young created the country’s first dedicated urological research hospital.
Past Research Directors
-
Donald Coffey is a gifted mentor and brilliant scientist who led research at the Brady Urological Institute for over three decades.
His storied legacy includes some of the field’s most significant discoveries, such as the nuclear matrix of cells.
But among his numerous achievements, the most important is that he attracted, inspired and trained countless students. “Today, when one looks at the leaders in urological research, every one of them has the imprint of Don Coffey, one way or another,” says Alan Partin, director of the Brady Urological Institute.
-
Charles Tesar ushered in a new era of scientific breakthroughs by designing and planning what a modern lab should look like.
During his time as the laboratory director, he trained and supported over 50 budding investigators. Additionally, he came to be known as a talented cartoonist, sharing his wonderful sense of humor with his colleagues.
Honors he was awarded during his long and fruitful career include a research fellowship at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, a senior Fulbright Scholar Program grant for the Jules Bordet Institute in Belgium and a fellowship at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.
-
H.G. Williams-Ashman helped research flourish at the Brady Urological Institute. As the first research director, he established Brady’s international reputation as a scientific powerhouse.
The principal research advances made by Williams-Ashman and his coworkers over the five-year period from 1964 to 1969 were polyamine metabolism in the prostate gland and other mammalian organs; deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in testis and prostate; hormonal regulation of protein synthesis; mechanisms of semen coagulation; and studies on male accessory genital gland metabolism, including fructose and nucleotide.