David M. Albala, MD, FACS, is a tenured Professor at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. He is Co-Director of the Endourology fellowship at Duke and Director for the Center of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Urological Surgery. He is considered a national and international authority in laparoscopic and robotic urological surgery and has been an active teacher in this area for over 17 years.

Dr. Albala graduated with a geology degree from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He completed his medical school training at Michigan State University and went on to complete his surgical residency at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Following this, Dr. Albala was an endourology fellow at Washington University Medical Center under the direction of Ralph V. Clayman. He practiced at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago and rose from the ranks of Instructor to full Professor in Urology and Radiology in eight years.

Dr. Albala's research and clinical interests have focused on robotic urological surgery. In addition, other clinical interests include minimally invasive treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and the use of fibrin sealants in surgery. He has been a Visiting Professor at numerous institutions across the United States as well as overseas in countries such as India, China, Iceland, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and Singapore. In addition, Dr. Albala is a past White House Fellow who acted as a special assistant to Federico Pena, Secretary of Transportation, on classified and unclassified public health related issues.

Dr. Albala has over 165 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has authored two textbooks in endourology and one in general urology. He serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Robotic Surgery, Journal of Endourology, Current Opinions in Urology, and Urology Index and Reviews.