Arnold G. Coran was born in Boston on April 16, 1938. He graduated from Boston Latin School in 1955, from Harvard College in 1959 and from Harvard Medical School in 1963, where he was elected to AOA. His training in general and thoracic surgery was done at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and in pediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital Medical Center, in Boston. In 1969, he was the recipient of the Harvard Traveling Fellowship, which he used to study neonatal metabolism at the University of Oslo, in Norway. He spent the next two years at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda. In 1972, he was appointed Head of Pediatric Surgery at the Los Angeles County/UCS Medical Center and Assistant/Associate Professor of Surgery at the medical school there. In 1974, he became the Head of the Section of Pediatric Surgery and Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School. In 1981, he became the Surgeon-in-Chief of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. In 1986, he established the pediatric surgery residency at the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital/University of Michigan Medical School.

Dr. Coran is a member of the American Surgical Association, the Society of University Surgeons and many other national and international organizations. He is the past Chairman of the Surgical Advisory Council for Pediatric Surgery of the American College of Surgeons and is the past Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Surgical Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has been the Chairman of the Surgical Advisory Panel of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is the past President of the American Pediatric Surgical Association. He is the President of the World Federation of Associations of Pediatric Surgeons (WOFAPS), a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Surgery International, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, an Editor of the two volume textbook "Pediatric Surgery", an Editor of "Essentials of Pediatric Surgery", Co-Editor of "Rob & Smith's Pediatric Surgery", an Editor of Principles of Pediatric Surgery", an Editor of "Care of the Surgical Patient" and on the Editorial Board of several other journals. He was elected to Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of England on July 11, 2006. Dr. Coran is the author of over 409 journal articles, 111 book chapters and 21 books.

Dr. Coran has contributed extensively in the fields of Pediatric Surgery, Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Shock in Children, Bacterial Translocation in the Neonate, and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Pediatric Respiratory Failure. Among his clinical research efforts are studies concerning total body water and extra cellular fluid changes in infants receiving total parenteral nutrition and neonatal respiratory failure, esophageal surgery in children, Hirschsprung's Disease, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and studies of cancer in children.

Additionally, Dr. Coran has influenced his field through educational activities. He is the past President of the Association of Pediatric Surgery Training Program Directors; Senior Advisor of the Surgical Section of the Children's Cancer Study Group; and a Founding Member of the Society for Pediatric Trauma. He is also a frequent Invited Lecturer and Visiting Professor throughout the world.