Dr. Maker is the Surgeon-In-Chief of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor, and Chief of Surgical Oncology at the University of California San Francisco. He graduated from Brown University with dual degree honors in fine arts/painting and drawing, and biology.  Thereafter, he enrolled in the Yale School of Medicine where he graduated with the Gold Medal in Surgery, followed by residency in general surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School. He trained in surgical oncology at the NIH and completed postdoctoral studies in tumor immunology at the National Cancer Institute under Dr. Steven Rosenberg. This research included trials that led to approval by the Food and Drug Administration of Ipilimumab as a new treatment for metastatic cancer. He later completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and then gained experience in minimally invasive surgical techniques at the University of Paris. Prior to joining UCSF, he was a tenured professor in the Departments of Surgery and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He has focused the efforts of his research career on expanding the role of immunotherapy for colorectal liver metastases, and in establishing biomarkers of malignancy in pancreatic cystic tumors. His work has been funded consistently for over a decade and he has aligned his clinical practice to coincide with his research interests and focuses on surgery for hepatopancreatobiliary tumors, GI surgical oncology, IPMN, and liver metastases. He is the principal investigator on federal grants awarded by the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense, including the NCI R37 MERIT award. He has published more than 300 manuscripts, abstracts and book chapters, and lectures nationally and internationally. He serves on the editorial boards of many surgical and scientific journals; serves on NIH study sections, and has held leadership positions in numerous academic and scientific societies. This is in addition to multiple “Golden Scalpel” and Teaching Awards; and serving as an examiner for the American Board of Surgery and Complex General Surgical Oncology boards.