Four UAB medical students were named winners of the Department of Surgery’s annual medical student awards at the 2020 School of Medicine Birmingham Campus Awards ceremony on Friday, May 15. Among those students, two of them will soon join the department as general surgery residents after matching into the program in March.

Incoming General Surgery Resident Mackenzie Abraham, M.D., was awarded the Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student. Additionally, incoming General Surgery Resident Haddon Mullins, M.D., received the Richard Stahl Medical Student Award for Outstanding Team Building and Leadership Skills.

Established in 2017, the Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student was named in honor of former Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery Director Mary Hawn, M.D., MPH. The Richard Stahl Medical Student Award for Outstanding Team Building and Leadership Skills honors a dedicated teambuilder and leader in honor of Richard Stahl, M.D., who is currently an associate professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery. Stahl also serves as medical director of Bariatric Surgery and program director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship.

Two other Department of Surgery awards were also given: the Elizabeth Beierle Medical Student Award for Research and Community Service and the Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery, awarded to Joseph Ladowski, M.D., and Leah Schoel, M.D., respectively.

Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., is currently a professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery, where she holds the Charles D. McCrary Endowed Chair in Pediatric Surgery. Beierle also serves as vice chair of Faculty Development and surgical director of the Hepatobiliary Clinic at Children's of Alabama while simultaneously leading the Beierle Lab. The Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery was established in 2017 in honor of internationally known lung cancer surgeon and long-time UAB Surgery faculty member Robert Cerfolio, M.D., MBA, who became the first director of the Lung Cancer Center at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center.

In addition to the awards ceremony, the UAB School of Medicine hosted a virtual commencement for all graduates. Although this year looked a bit different this year than in previous years, some things did not change– the reciting of the Hippocratic Oath, moving tassels from right to left and Dean Vickers closing the ceremony with the declaration of degree and best wishes for the Class of 2020. Read more about the 2020 SOM Commencement.

See a complete list of award winners from all ­four regional campuses here.