Matt Skovgard, MD

Matt Skovgard, MD, is a cardiothoracic surgeon and Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery in the UCSF Department of Surgery, Division of Thoracic Surgery. He is an expert in the surgical treatment of complex thoracic diseases (affecting the lungs, esophagus, mediastinum, pleura, and chest wall). His clinical focus is on minimally invasive robotic surgery and thoracic oncology.

Dr. Skovgard came to UCSF in 2025 from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York. He completed fellowship at MSKCC in Cardiothoracic Surgery where he specialized in Thoracic Surgical Oncology. His clinical training also included Cardiac Surgery at New York-Presbyerian Hospital/Cornell and Lung Transplantation at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University. He is board-certified by the American Board of Surgery. He completed General Surgery Residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell.

Dr. Skovgard completed a two-year, NIH-funded research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering focused on immunotherapy for thoracic malignancies. His ground-breaking translational research for Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for lung cancer and mesothelioma was featured on the cover of Cancer Immunology Research (2023) and has been advanced toward clinical trials. He has been widely published and presented nationally, including as a finalist for the prestigious Walton C. Lillehei Research Forum.

He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology (BS, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering), and brings an engineering mindset to his passion for surgical and biosynthetic innovation. He earned his medical degree at Tulane University School of Medicine where he graduated summa cum laude. He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Society for academic achievement and the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) for excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion, and dedication to service.

His clinical interests include robotic surgery, immunotherapeutics, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, mesothelioma, thymic malignancy, and diseases of the chest wall. He has completed the grant-funded AATS Graham Fellowship in Advanced Robotic Thoracic Surgery. He is the recipient of numerous awards including Cornell ICU Resident of the Year, the Tulane 34 Award (Tulane’s highest achievable student award, for exemplary leadership, service, and academic excellence), and the 2016 Tulane Alumni Award. He is active in several societies including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), and the American College of Surgeons (ACS).

Although a native Californian, Dr. Skovgard has a global upbringing, having lived in Venezuela, China, and South Korea for 16 years before returning to the United States for college. He is multilingual and brings a broad, multicultural perspective to patient care.