--- description: Find out why Robert Montgomery is one of the 100 most influential people of 2025. title: Robert Montgomery: The 100 Most Influential People of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte54d3b2b158e8403/6998c5c7c8dcb41e92b500a7/time100-2025-robert-montgomery.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 16, 2025 # Robert Montgomery by Kevin Longino  Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, director, Transplant Institute NYU Langone. Photographed 2/19/2019 at the Transplant Institute NYU Langone, New York City. Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, director, Transplant Institute NYU Langone. Photographed 2/19/2019 at the Transplant Institute NYU Langone, New York City.Brad Trent Renowned surgeon and humanitarian Dr. Robert Montgomery has revolutionized organ transplantation, expanding access and improving outcomes for patients worldwide. He pioneered laparoscopic kidney donation, using smaller incisions to make live donation safer and less painful. Other groundbreaking work—including developing strategies for domino paired donations—has enabled thousands to receive lifesaving organs despite biological barriers. Dr. Montgomery has also long advocated for the use of hepatitis C-positive organs—which would increase the organs eligible for transplant—and walked the walk in 2018 by accepting a hepatitis C-positive heart transplant for himself. He traveled to Ukraine during the war to perform transplants and deliver essential medical supplies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded him the Order of Merit Medal. In 2021, Dr. Montgomery performed the first successful genetically modified pig-to-human kidney transplant, advancing xenotransplantation and offering new hope for addressing the global organ shortage. In 2024, he performed a transplant on a woman who became the longest-living recipient of a genetically engineered pig kidney. In February, FDA approved clinical trials for further xenotransplants of these modified pig kidneys to begin this year. Dr. Montgomery’s work has indelibly shaped the [future of transplantation](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/health/pig-cloning-transplants-kidneys.html "undefined"). _Longino is CEO of the National Kidney Foundation_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273743/robert-montgomery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273743/robert-montgomery/"},"headline":"Robert Montgomery","datePublished":"2025-04-16T10:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:45:45.348Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273743/robert-montgomery/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte54d3b2b158e8403/6998c5c7c8dcb41e92b500a7/time100-2025-robert-montgomery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte54d3b2b158e8403/6998c5c7c8dcb41e92b500a7/time100-2025-robert-montgomery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273743/robert-montgomery/","name":"Robert Montgomery"}}]}] ```