Dr. Cowl is the Chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational and Aerospace Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota with a joint appointment in the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine. He attended Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago before completing training in Internal Medicine, Occupational Medicine, and Toxicology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. He then did fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Mayo Clinic, after which time he joined the faculty of Mayo Clinic. Outside of evaluating patients with occupational and environmental lung exposures, his research and educational interests have been diverse. Dr. Cowl has ongoing projects focused on respiratory physiology at altitude and environmental aspects of pulmonary disease. He has also conducted research in other areas of Transportation Medicine, such as safety issues in the commercial driving industry. He is Senior Aviation Medical Examiner appointed by the Federal Aviation Administration, a commercially-rated pilot, and Past President of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. He has been a subject matter expert and educational curriculum writer for CHEST PREP courses and for a number of courses at Mayo Clinic where he has received an Innovation in Education Award by the Mayo School of Continuous Professional Development. Dr. Cowl is currently the CHEST President and is on the editorial board of SEEK.