Dr. Timothy Girard is an Associate Professor of Critical Care Medicine, Medicine, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He received his BA from Baylor University and his MD from the University of Texas Southwestern before completing his internal medicine residency at the University of Virginia. He then concluded his training at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he obtained his MSCI and completed a pulmonary and critical care fellowship. He was on faculty at Vanderbilt for nearly a decade before moving to the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently an investigator in the University’s CRISMA (Clinical Research, Investigation, and Systems Modeling of Acute Illnesses) Center, where he directs the Long-Term Outcomes Core. His research program, which is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, seeks to understand and enhance long-term recovery from critical illness with a specific focus on cognitive impairment due to critical illness; delirium and sedation in the ICU; and liberation from mechanical ventilation. Dr. Girard was the first to establish that protocolized management of sedation during critical illness improves long-term survival and that delirium during critical illness is a risk factor for persistent cognitive impairment and disability. These insights fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the cognitive effects of critical illness and led directly to widespread practice change. He is currently conducting clinical and translational studies designed to advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying delirium and long-term cognitive impairment due to critical illness.