Mehrdad Jalili

Biography

Mehrdad Jalili, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, where he has served as Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit since 1994 and Director of Training for Pediatric Simulation since 2011. He received his M.D. from the University of Isfahan in Iran in 1980, graduating in the top 5% of his class, and completed his pediatric residency at Cool County Children hospital in Chicago, with subsequent fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonary and Critical Care at Memorial Miller Children's Hospital of Long Beach through a joint program with the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Jalili is board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and serves as an attending intensivist at Children's Hospital of Orange County/UCIMC, and as an Extra Corporeal Life Support Physician.

Dr.Jalili's research has focused on pediatric critical care, with particular emphasis on brain death determination, anoxic ischemic encephalopathy, and acute respiratory distress syndrome in children. He has participated as a co-investigator in multiple large-scale, NIH-funded multi-institutional studies, including THAPCA (Therapeutic Hypothermia After Pediatric Cardiac Arrest), which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015, and RESTORE (Randomized Evaluation of Sedation Titration for Respiratory Failure). His published work includes studies on cerebral blood flow changes detected by Doppler ultrasound, high frequency oscillation in severe pediatric ARDS, cardiovascular abnormalities in Congenital Central hypoventilation syndrome.

Jalili is a past Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Chest Physicians, and held memberships in the Society of Critical Care, American Thoracic Society, and Neurocritical Care Society. He has received multiple teaching awards from the University of California, Irvine, including the Outstanding Faculty/Best Teacher Award and the Winner of Best Teacher Award in Excellence in 1994-1995, and was named Intern of the Year at Cook County Children's Hospital in 1985-1986. He has delivered numerous invited lectures as recently as April 2026 at the ABA (American Burn Association) a national meeting. Topics including septic shock, mechanical ventilation, pediatric trauma, and acute respiratory failure, and many more.... he has served on multiple hospital committees including the Critical Care Committee/ Trauma PI / Nutrition at UC Irvine hospital and the Critical Case Committee at CHOC Children's Hospital.

Education

• M.D., University of Isfahan, 1980
• Certificate in Basic Medical Sciences, University of Isfahan, 1976

Distinctions

• Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics
• Fellow, American College of Chest Physicians
• Outstanding Faculty / Best Teacher Award, University of California, Irvine, 1994-1995
• Winner of Best Teacher Award in Excellence, University of California, Irvine, 1994-1995
• AMA OC Physician of Excellence, 2011,2014
• Intern of the Year, Cook County Children's Hospital, 1985-1986
• Pediatric Residency at Cook County Children Hospital, 1985-1088
• Top 5% of Graduating Class at Medical School , 1980