Eugene H. Chang, MD, FACS is the Division Director of Neurorhinology and a Professor with tenure at the University of Arizona Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. His clinical expertise is in the management of paranasal sinus inflammatory disorders, allergic fungal rhinosinusitis, revision sinus surgery, complex frontal sinus disease, cerebrospinal fluid leaks, encephaloceles, and minimally invasive approaches to the paranasal sinuses and skull base for resection of benign and malignant sinonasal neoplasms. He is the co-director of the Neurorhinology fellowship, the only specialized fellowship for the training of advanced neurorhinologic cases in the state of Arizona.
Dr. Chang completed his undergraduate education in Economics at Brown University and continued his medical education at Brown University Medical School through the Program for Liberal Medical Education (PLME) program. During his medical school training, he was awarded the Doris Duke Clinical Research fellowship to train with Dr. Richard Smith, a world-renowned geneticist in hearing loss. He then completed his residency in Otolaryngology at the University of Iowa (2004-2009), and an NIH-funded T32 sinonasal fellowship with Dr. Joseph Zabner (2009-2010). He became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery at the University of Iowa and has been continuously funded by the NIH for his work in translational sinus research. He moved to the University of Arizona in 2015 as an Associate Professor and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS). He became a Professor with tenure in 2022.
Dr. Chang’s clinical interests are in developing novel techniques and approaches for endoscopic sinus and skull base surgery. He is very grateful for all of his mentorship throughout his career, and in return it has been his passion to mentor others. His goal is to identify talents in students, residents, fellows, and researchers to identifying their strengths and develop their niche. His overarching goal is to make a difference in people’s lives – through science and surgery. He has developed innovative educational curricula that incorporate 3-dimensional modeling, mixed-reality, and virtual-reality to provide immersive simulation techniques to train surgeons in the 21st century.
Dr. Chang is internationally recognized for his work in the molecular airway biology of upper airway disease. He is one of a small number of surgeon-scientists in Otolaryngology that combines an active clinical practice and research expertise to help understand the basic process of sinus disease and develop future therapies and treatments. He was recently awarded a 2.2 M grant from the NIAID as a primary investigator to identify genetic causes for chronic sinusitis. He has an expansive research portfolio including funding from the National Institute of Health, Arizona Biomedical Research Commission, Bio5, Tech Launch Arizona and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He has over 50 peer-reviewed articles in journals including Science: Translational Medicine (Impact factor: 16.8), American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (17.5), Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (14.1), Journal of Clinical Investigation (12.7), PNAS (9.6), Allergy (8.7), Molecular Therapy (6.7), and the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology (4.1).
Dr. Chang enjoys golfing, biking, swimming, reading, traveling and spending time outside in beautiful Tucson, Arizona with his wife, Dr. Esther Kim, and their four children.