Dr. L. Michael Brunt receives the Distinguished Clinician Award from Dr. Larry Shapiro, dean of the School of Medicine, as faculty members Dr. Diana Gray and Dr. Aaron Hamvas look on.

This is the second year for the awards, which were created to recognize outstanding achievements in clinical care, community service, research and teaching.

Dr. Brunt performs basic and advanced laparoscopic surgery, including operations involving the gallbladder, hernias, hiatal hernias, solid organs such as the adrenal gland and spleen, stomach and endocrine system. He has been listed in Best Doctors in America® from 1996 through 2008 and has been the referral surgeon for numerous faculty, fellow surgeons and their families.

Dr. Brunt was one of the first Washington University physicians to fully adopt laparoscopic surgery and is internationally recognized for his work in laparoscopic adrenalectomy. Recently, he and his colleagues were first in the region to perform laparoscopic single-incision gallbladder surgery. He has been a team surgeon for the St. Louis Blues for 15 years and has a nationwide referral practice for collegiate and professional athletes with sports hernias.

A gifted professor, Dr. Brunt was voted Clinical Teacher of the Year by the medical students five times between 2000 and 2006. In 2002, he received the School of Medicine's Samuel Goldstein Leadership Award in Medical Student Education.

“Michael Brunt is a terrific physician and surgeon and a stupendous human being,” said Timothy J. Ebelein, M.D., Bixby Professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery. “He is a real ‘doctor's doctor’ whom we are glad to have as our esteemed colleague.”

Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, recognized Brunt and the other distinguished faculty at the awards ceremony. “Our awardees’ efforts have touched the personal and professional lives of countless patients, families, colleagues and trainees,” Shapiro said. “In the process, they have enriched our academic community and beyond in immeasurable ways.”

Dr. Brunt earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Mississippi in 1976 and a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1980. He then trained in general surgery at Washington University and held a two-year postgraduate research fellowship in immunology within the Department of Pathology. He started clinical practice on the faculty in 1990 and achieved the rank of professor in 2006.