The University of Chicago UChicago CPOST

Russ Zajtchuk immigrated to the United States in 1951. He completed college, medical school, residency, and CVT fellowship at the University of Chicago. In 1970, he entered US Army active duty service as a CVT surgeon. In 1971, he and his wife who is also a surgeon, volunteered for active duty in Vietnam. Their deployment to the 24th EVAC Hospital influenced their joint decision to pursue Army medical careers rather than civilian academic medicine. He retired from active duty in 1998 after 28 years of military service.

He held diverse academic positions and staff and command positions as a general officer in the Army Medical Department (AMEDD). He was the CVT Chair and Program Director at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and concurrently at the National Naval Medical Center (1980-1984). His academic standing is recognized at an international level. He is Professor of Surgery, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He was the first Commander, 41st Combat Support Hospital, Honduras (1983) and served as Deputy Commander of WRAMC (1989-1991). After promotion to general officer (1991), he served as Commanding General, Brooke Army Medical Center and the regional hospitals (1991-1993). He then served as Chief, US Army Medical Corps, Office of the Surgeon General (1993-94). He was Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (1994-98).

He developed the Congressionally-authorized medical humanitarian assistance program in the Department of Defense (DOD) for world-wide deployments (1986). He was the founding Editor-in-Chief and contributor for the Surgeon General’s Textbooks of Military Medicine (1987). This classic series of over twenty volumes is the didactic repository of the scope of knowledge needed by AMEDD personnel in world-wide deployments. His contributions as a general staff officer include restructuring the AMEDD as a command under the Chief of Staff of the Army and establishing the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency-DOD Consortium to develop digital medical products and applications for combat soldiers (1994). As the Chief Operating Officer, DOD Telemedicine Testbed, the DOD became the recognized world leader (1995).

He is a retired covert CIA agent and served for forty years (1968-2008). His active service spanned the time from his surgical training years, as a military officer and after his military retirement. His area of expertise was Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Russian Federation. His clandestine work contributed to US national security and had historical impact in the former Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Ukraine during the Soviet era. After 9/11, his intelligence work focused on the threat of international terrorism.

He has fifteen US and four foreign military awards. His civilian awards include the Distinguished Service Award (1993) and the Alumni Service Award (2024) from the University of Chicago. He is an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia (1994) and has an honorary doctorate degree, Russian Military Academy of Medicine, St Petersburg, Russia (1994).

After his Army retirement, he was Vice President for Advanced Technologies and International Health, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago IL (1998-2003). He is Professor Emeritus, CVT Surgery, Rush University Medical Center. He worked with federal agencies and the National Academy of Sciences in the areas of biological, chemical, and cyber-terrorism (2000-2012).