After 10 years of service to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine and UAB Health System, Dean Assimos, M.D., will retire from UAB at the end of September 2022.
Assimos is an internationally known researcher and clinician who came to UAB in 2012 from Wake Forest University, where he served as vice chair of urology. Assimos became the inaugural chair of the Division of Urology when it first became its own department in 2012 under his leadership.
Assimos began his career at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and went on to complete his six-year residency in urology at Northwestern University in 1983. He became a fellow in renal reconstructive surgery and stone disease at Wake Forest University the following year and then went on to become an American Urological Association research scholar from 1984 to 1986. His clinical practice concentrated on the surgical management of patients with complex calculous disease, and metabolic stone evaluation and treatment.
Under Assimos’ leadership, the department has approximately tripled its number of clinical faculty, as well as expanded educational boundaries to include graduate students, post-graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows. Assimos has been actively involved in the establishment of practice guidelines in urology and has served in numerous leadership positions in international, national, and regional organizations.
Assimos is an NIH-funded physician-scientist and is eager to engage in future educational activities. He plans to continue mentoring faculty engaged in kidney stone-related research as well as participate in ongoing federally funded grants. Assimos is currently an active member of the editorial board of the Journal of Endourology and contributes to the urologic survey section of the Journal of Urology
Soroush Rais-Bahrami, M.D., professor, will serve as interim chair. Rais-Bahrami joined the department in 2014, specializing in urologic oncology. He is co-director of the UAB Program for Personalized Prostate Cancer Care and director of the GU Cancer Management Team for the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Dr. Rais-Bahrami has excelled in clinical research, patient care, and education. He is bright, innovative, hard-working, and has the skill set to continue leading this department on an upward trajectory,” said Assimos.
Assimos plans on serving as a mentor to Rais-Bahrami and other faculty to ensure the department’s continued success and ongoing development.
“Dr. Assimos has served our Department of Urology as the inaugural chair and has always been a consummate role model for the faculty, staff, residents, and students who work together in our academic pursuit of great clinical service, education, and research. We wish him and his family the best as he retires, leaving a strong foundation for our group which will always honor his transformational impact on developing our department in so many ways,” says Rais-Bahrami.
Rais Bahrami will begin serving as chair of the department effective Oct. 1, 2022. He is honored to be selected as the interim chair to follow the legacy of Dr. Assimos’ strong leadership for the department.
“I greatly look forward to assuming this role with the goal of continuing the amazing growth and exceptional excellence set forth in the Department of Urology throughout its history. As a team, we will strive to lead our discipline by continuing to offer the most advanced urologic clinical care, forging ahead at the forefront of research in the field, and educating the next generation of outstanding urologic surgeons,” says Rais-Bahrami.