Claude Emerson Welch (March 14, 1906 – March 9, 1996) was an American surgeon who was internationally recognized, and whose career spanned forty years. For most of those forty years, Welch worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was involved with a variety of activities that included "patient care, teaching, clinical research, establishment of funds to maintain such activities, promotion of all aspects of medical education, and strengthening of ties between the government, the courts, the legal profession and physicians."