Thomas Franklin, PhD

Former President - Texas Health Research Institute

Dr. Franklin received a B.S. degree in biology from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1963 and a M.S. Degree in cardiovascular physiology from Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, in 1967.  He earned his Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics in 1972 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

Before coming to Plano, Texas in 1990, Dr. Franklin spent two years at McDonnell-Douglas Corp., St. Louis, Missouri, working on the NASA/USAF Project Gemini B Manned Orbital Laboratory; three years as a Research Scientist at the Interscience Research Institute in Champaign, Illinois; and eighteen years as a faculty member in the Department of Radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis where he served as President and Executive Director of Indianapolis Center for Advanced Research from 1982 to 1990.   Dr. Franklin moved to Texas in 1990 to become the President of the Texas Back Institute Research Foundation (TBIRF).  In 1994 the assets and liabilities of TBIRF were transferred to the Institute for Spine and Biomedical Research (ISBR) and in 1998, ISBR became Texas Health Research Institute (THRI), a member organization of Texas Health Resources (THR).  THRI is responsible for coordinating the continuing medical education for physicians across the THR network of 13 hospitals and for facilitating clinical research and development activities with THR physicians.  THRI also manages the Presbyterian Institute for Minimally Invasive Technology, a research and training facility on the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas campus.  Dr. Franklin served as President of ISBR from 1994 to 1998, and President of THRI from 1998 to 2003.

Dr. Franklin is the recipient of several honors and awards including: Karl R. Ruddell Scholar, 1975; Who's Who in Medical Science, 1988; Ralph and Grace Showalter Chair, Indianapolis Center for Advanced Research, 1982-1990; and Who's Who in Science and Engineering, 1994-1995.

His research experience includes: diagnostic and therapeutic applications of medical ultrasound in brain, breast, prostate, heart, and biliary tree; regulation of cerebral blood flow; myocardial ischemia and coronary blood flow; gallstone dissolution; animate surgery and models; and musculoskeletal system.  Other experiences include technology transfer and management of intellectual properties.  His bibliography includes forty-six publications and sixty-nine presentations with published abstracts.

Dr. Franklin is married and he and his wife, Annie Faye, have two married sons and four grandsons.