The Society of Asian Academic Surgeons Executive Council pose for a photo at the organization's second annual meeting, hosted by the UAB Department of Surgery at Children's Hospital.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham hosted the second annual Society of Asian Academic Surgeons national meeting Sept. 21-22. Almost 200 surgeons attended the event from around the country, including 15 chairs of departments of surgery.
Highlights of the meeting included:
- Selwyn Vickers, M.D., senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the UAB School of Medicine, served as the meeting's keynote speaker. Vickers is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a world-renowned surgeon, pancreatic cancer researcher and pioneer in health disparities research.
- UAB faculty member James McClintock, Ph.D., the Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology, presented a lecture titled, "Drug Discovery in Antarctic Seas." His research focuses on aspects of marine invertebrate nutrition, reproduction and Antarctic marine chemical ecology.
- Guest speakers included Larry Chang, M.B.A., and Denise Peck, M.B.A., from Ascend, the largest nonprofit pan-Asian organization for business professionals in North America.
- A scientific session, presentations and panel discussions on leadership and career development were also available to attendees.
“It is an honor for UAB to host the second annual meeting of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons,” said Jayleen Grams, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of surgery at UAB and local arrangements chair for the meeting. “UAB values diversity and strives to create an environment that helps promising academic surgeons become leaders in their field. Therefore, our departmental values are aligned with the mission of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons, and hosting the second annual meeting is a wonderful way to support those joint goals.”
“SAAS works to promote career development and improved visibility for Asian surgeons to increase representation in the leadership of academic surgery.” said Herbert Chen, M.D., the chair of the UAB Department of Surgery. Chen is a founding member of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons and host of the meeting. “Asians represent approximately 20 percent of all academic surgeons, but less than 5 percent of department chairs around the country. SAAS works to promote career development and improved visibility for Asian surgeons to increase representation in the leadership of academic surgery.”
The society provides scholarships for both trainees and junior faculty to help with career development, and presents awards for the best research submitted by members to the Academic Surgical Congress to showcase the advances being made by Asians in the field.
The society is fully inclusive, defining “Asian” in the broadest sense to include those from East, Southeast and South Asia, as well as Persians, Arabs, Turks and any other nationality from the Asian continent. Furthermore, membership in SAAS is open to anyone of any ethnicity who has an interest in promoting underrepresented populations in any arena of academic surgery.
This story was originally posted on UAB News.
SAAS 2017 Photo Gallery
