Dr. Thomas Clemens is the Lewis Cass Spencer Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and serves as the Vice Chair for research in the department. 

Dr. Clemens received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of London, UK and completed postdoctoral training as a Research Fellow in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.  He has held faculty positions in Clinical Pathology at Colombia University, in Medicine at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and then a Professor of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. He was the director of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he established a Howard Hughes sponsored Med-to-Grad doctoral program.  Dr. Clemens assumed his current position at Johns Hopkins University in 2009.   

Dr. Clemens research focuses on study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms, which control development and repair of skeletal muscle and bone.  Dr. Clemens has authored more than 150 original publications, in addition to a number of editorials and book chapters. He has served as a council member of the ASBMR and as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research from 2008 to 2012. Dr. Clemens’ work was recognized by the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research with the Louis V. Avioli Esteemed Award in 2013.