HWS News
29 October 2025 • Alums From Sculpture to Surgery and Back
From the operating room to the studio bench, Dr. Bruce Bauer ’70 has spent a lifetime sculpting beauty—whether from living tissue, lapis or opal.
Long before he held a scalpel, Dr. Bruce S. Bauer ’70 held a chisel. Skills he began developing as a 10-year-old carving whalebone on family trips to New England, he later honed as a Chicago-based surgeon performing pediatric reconstructive surgery. An astute attention to detail and a three-dimensional sense informed his work as a surgeon and as a sculptor and jewelry maker.
The Chicago-based physician is renowned for his pioneering work with children born with congenital differences will present a community-wide talk on Thursday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. in the Seneca Room.
Sponsored by the Salisbury Center for Career, Professional and Experiential Education, Bauer’s lecture, “From Sculpture to Surgery and Back: Forging Beauty from Nature with 3D Thinking from Living Tissue to Wearable Art,” explores how his early artistic curiosity shaped a lifelong career helping children.
When he started his medical career, Bauer was one of few to specialize in pediatric reconstructive surgery. The focus led him to develop innovations such as pediatric tissue expansions, a technique that creates new skin to repair or replace skin elsewhere on the body to treat birthmarks and other congenital conditions.
Working with pediatric dermatologists, Bauer was able to widen the application of his techniques to problematic skin lesions that led to the adoption of pediatric tissue expansion around the world.
During his visit, Bauer, who majored in biology as an undergrad, will meet with students and faculty in biology, chemistry and sculpture to discuss the “3D thinking” for which he became known as a surgeon and the other various intersections of science and art that define his medical and artistic work.
His studio - BSBEE Designs in Chicago - fuses art, science and environmental storytelling. Inspired by the intricate geometry of beehives, Asian art and the fluid elegance of Art Nouveau design, Bauer’s themes are from nature. Intricately carved dragonflies, polar bears and birds emerge from a range of materials: opal, lapis or non-endangered warthog tusk.
Each design is an original artwork showcased at venues such as the Wells Gallery at the Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah Island, S.C. and the Faust Gallery in Sante Fe, N.M.
This week, he will show students how curiosity and creativity can span disciplines. Through his work — both in the operating room and the studio — Bauer reminds the HWS community that the boundaries between art and science are not barriers, they’re bridges.
