Medical & Surgical Urology
Open Access

Peter N. Schlegel

Biography

Peter N. Schlegel, M.D., F.A.C.S. is the James J. Colt Professor and Chairman of Urology; Professor of Reproductive Medicine at The Weill Cornell Medical College; as well as the Urologist-in-Chief at The New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell; a Senior Staff Scientist at The Population Council, Center for Biomedical Research; and a Visiting Associate Physician at The Rockefeller University Hospital. Dr. Schlegel is an internationally acclaimed expert in the treatment of male infertility, especially the interface of male factor treatment with assisted reproductive techniques. He was awarded the 1996 Established Clinician Award by The European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology, the source of the most important advance in male infertility treatment in recent years, the technique of intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Dr. Schlegel was awarded a fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1992 for collaborative study with urologists in London, which he performed in 1993. In over 220 published or submitted original manuscripts, book chapters and invited articles, Dr. Schlegel has described the characteristics of men who are candidates for sperm retrieval, designed and described novel techniques for sperm retrieval for use with assisted reproduction, and identified the factors that affect the successful achievement of pregnancy after sperm retrieval. More importantly, the team of scientists, reproductive endocrinologists, nurses and technicians that Dr. Schlegel has worked with at Cornell has achieved one of the highest pregnancy rates in the world for treatment of couples using sperm that were retrieved by Dr. Schlegel. Early in his career, Dr. Schlegel worked with pioneers in the field of urology and male reproductive function.  With Dr. Fray Marshall and Dr. Patrick Walsh at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Schlegel worked as a resident in general surgery and urology. During that time, Dr. Schlegel established some of the anatomical basis that was necessary to develop the contemporary procedure of radical prostatectomy that is used to cure localized prostate cancer. Dr. Schlegel is currently or was previously served on editorial board of the medical journals, Journal of Urology, Fertility & Sterility, AUA Update Series, Techniques in Urology, Journal of Andrology, and FertiliText. He was the Edwin A. Beer Program award recipient of The New York Academy of Medicine, 1996-98, and received a New Investigator Award from the American Foundation for Urologic Diseases, 1993-95. Dr. Schlegel serves or has served in a leadership role of several national infertility organizations, including as an Executive Council member for the American Society of Andrology, on the board of directors and president of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology as well as the Society of Reproductive Surgeons of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, as well as its Board of Directors. Dr. Schlegel is a board-certified urologist, who served on the American Board of Urology Examination Committee, which writes the exam questions that evaluates candidates for urology board certification. He is currently a trustee of the American Board of Urology. He is currently licensed to practice medicine in the state of New York, and graduated near the top of his class from The University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Research Interest

His expertise in the field of advanced reproductive treatments for male infertility has been recognized by national and international authorities has been recognized by invitations from the National Institutes of Health, The American Urologic Association, Austrian, French, German, Irish, Israeli, Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, Indonesian, Mexican, Venezuelan reproductive or urologic societies to speak on issues of male infertility treatment. He has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who′s Who in the East, Who′s Who in Education, and Who′s Who in Science and Engineering.