Dr. Hirano is Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He attended college at Yale University, medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and completed his medical residency and GI fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He took a faculty position at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center and Harvard Medical School working in esophageal swallowing physiology before coming to Northwestern in 1998. He is currently serving as Vice-Chair for the American Gastroenterological Association’s Esophageal, Gastric and Duodenal (EGD) section, site principal investigator for the Consortium of Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal disease Researchers (CEGIR) and the educational co-chair for International Gastrointestinal Eosinophil Researchers (TIGERS). Dr. Hirano has written over 150 scientific papers and textbook chapters that focus on esophageal and swallowing disorders. He has active grant support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) for research in eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders. Dr. Hirano is an Associate Editor for The American Journal of Gastroenterology and on the editorial board for Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He received the Northwestern University School of Medicine Award for Outstanding Achievement in Gastroenterology in 2002 and Distinguished Service Award in 2013. Dr. Hirano has been recognized as one of the Chicago area’s “Top Doctors” by the Chicago Consumer’s Checkbook and by Best Doctors in America. His clinical and academic interests are in eosinophilic esophagitis, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, gastrointestinal motility and esophageal disorders.