Rob Hawes attended Indiana University graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1976. He graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine where he also completed his Internal Medicine Residency and GI fellowship under the guidance of Dr. Glen Lehman. Dr. Hawes spent 1 year in London, England doing an Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship under the direction of Peter Cotton.

Dr Hawes served on the IU faculty from 1986-1994 and was promoted to Full Professor in July of 1994. Dr Hawes established the EUS program at IU in 1987 and worked with Glen Lehman to established one of the premier pancreatobiliary programs in the US.

In 1994, he joined Peter Cotton and moved to the Medical University of South Carolina to form a new Digestive Disease Center. This center was designed to facilitate the integration of GI medicine, surgery and radiology into an integrated unit to promote patient care, research, training and technology development. During his tenure at MUSC, the institution became recognized nationally and internationally for excellence in EUS, ERCP and therapeutic endoscopy.

In 2012, Dr Hawes moved to Florida Hospital Orlando to help develop the Center for Interventional Endoscopy. Working with 4 partners in a state-of-the-art endoscopy unit, CIE has become the busiest advanced endoscopy unit in the US, has published over 100 peer reviewed studies and receives referrals from all over the United States and many foreign countries

Dr Hawes served on numerous committees for the ASGE and served on the governing board from 1997-2000. Dr Hawes served as president of the ASGE from 2005-2006.

Dr Hawes was a founding member of the Apollo Group whose mission was to impact therapeutic endoscopy through innovation. Apollo Endosurgery (Austin, Texas) was formed to market Apollo Group technologies. The Apollo Group is credited with developing NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery).

Dr Hawes has trained over 75 advanced fellows, was the 1st person in the United States to hold an endowed chair in endoscopy (Peter B Cotton Chair for Endoscopic Innovation), has published over 375 peer reviewed articles and is co-editor of the most widely read textbook on EUS (Endosonography). He has lectured and performed live demonstration in over 30 different countries and has delivered 9 named lectures including lectures for the ASGE and ACG. In 2015, Dr Hawes received the ASGE’s highest honor, the Rudolf V. Schindler Award.