Dr. Cowan is a retired educator and board-certified surgeon who specialized in developing and advancing surgical weight loss procedures for more than four decades. After completing a Bachelor of Arts at Columbia College, Dr. Cowan studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, earning his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree with honors in 1964. He began his medical career in the United States Army Medical Corps in 1966, advancing to the rank of Colonel before receiving an honorable discharge in 1982, and continued to serve as a Captain in the United States Navy Reserves Medical Corps until 1998. Dr. Cowan joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee in 1982 and remained a member of the staff at four Memphis-area hospitals until his retirement in 2002. Throughout his career, he consulted for organizations including the American College of Surgeons and the National Nutrition Alliance, and published extensively on novel techniques in bariatric surgery, enteral nutrition, and surgery for obese patients. Dr. Cowan is the founder of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity, and his work was instrumental in introducing bariatric procedures to providers in more than 70 countries.