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Sixty-seven faculty, residents, medical students and lab members from the Department of Surgery will present their research at the 13th Annual Academic Surgical Congress next week in Jacksonville, Florida.

At Dean Selwyn Vickers’ annual State of the UAB School of Medicine address on Wednesday, the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Daniel Chu, M.D., was named a 2018 James A. Pittman Jr., M.D., Scholar. The Pittman Scholars program was created to recognize the contributions of junior faculty and support the recruitment and retention of highly competitive scientists and physician-scientists.

James K. Kirklin, M.D.,Dr. James Kirklin director of the Kirklin Institute for Research in Surgical Outcomes and professor of cardiothoracic surgery at UAB, will present at a joint symposium of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation at the STS 54th Annual Meeting on Jan. 30 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Second-year medical student Jameson Weiner’s abstract, “The Association of Enhanced Recovery Pathway and Acute Kidney Injury in Colorectal Surgery Patients,” has been selected to receive the 2018 Association for Academic Surgery/Society of Black Academic Surgeons Travel Scholarship. Weiner’s abstract was one of the highest-scoring abstracts reviewed by SBAS and was based on the research he conducted last summer under the mentorship of the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Melanie Morris.

Dr. Jeffrey KerbyDivision of Acute Care Surgery Director Jeffrey Kerby, M.D., Ph.D., was recently selected to serve on the Executive Committee of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. Kerby will also serve as chair of the Membership Committee of the ACS Committee on Trauma.

Dr. Melanie MorrisThe Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been awarded $85,000 by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Health Equity for a research project led by the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Melanie Morris, M.D., “Evaluating an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Program to Reduce Disparities in Surgical Outcomes for African American Veterans.”

Dr. Daniel ChuThe Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Daniel Chu, M.D., was recently awarded a visiting professorship from the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons. Chu will present the Raymond and Rose Tseng SAAS Lectureship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The event will be hosted by Brigham Health & Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Surgeon-in-Chief Gerard Doherty, M.D.

At this year’s State of the UAB Department of Surgery address, department chair Herbert Chen, M.D., highlighted 2017’s research and clinical successes and encouraged faculty to continue to excel in these areas.

Michael Hernon, M.D.Hartford Hospital’s Michael Hernon has been selected as the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s first colorectal surgery fellow. Hernon, who will begin his fellowship here in August, completed his general surgery training at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and subsequently completed a critical care fellowship at Boston Medical Center. During his critical care fellowship, Hernon said he decided that what he really wanted to do was colorectal surgery. He currently works as a critical care attending at Hartford Hospital and anticipates returning there after his colorectal surgery fellowship at UAB.

Dr. Meixi MaGeneral surgery resident Meixi Ma, M.D., has been accepted as the 2018 American College of Surgeons and John A. Hartford Foundation James C. Thompson Geriatrics Fellow.

Dr. Sushanth ReddyThe Division of Surgical Oncology’s Sushanth Reddy, M.D., has received a $40,000 ACS-IRG Junior Faculty Development Grant from the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and the American Cancer Society for his project, “Convergent mechanisms underlying pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma.”

Dr. Timothy KingCongratulations to the Division of Plastic Surgery’s Timothy King, M.D., Ph.D., who recently received a Society of University Surgeons Mid-Career Academic Surgery Professional Development Course Award to attend the SUS Mid-Career Course on Jan. 29, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront in Jacksonville, Florida.

Congratulations to the following general surgery residents who have recently matched into various fellowship programs across the country:

The Inaugural Women in Surgery Program was held April 26, 2016. The successful event featured a range of topics including work-life balance, how to be successful in academic surgery and private practice, networking, contract negotiations, and more. Below are videos of many of the lectures presented. 

Dr. Timothy KingThe UAB Department of Surgery and the Division of Plastic Surgery’s Timothy King, M.D., Ph.D., will host the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Plastic Surgery Research Council at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel, May 17-20, 2018. King also serves as chair of the Plastic Surgery Research Council.

Dr. Caroline JonesFifth-year general surgery resident Caroline Jones has matched into the Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital Breast Surgery Fellowship.

Dr. Vanessa DiPasqualeGeneral surgery resident Vanessa DiPasquale, M.D., has received a Looking to the Future Scholarship from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons to attend the STS 54th Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, January 27-31, 2018.

Dr. Jayme LockeThe Division of Transplantation’s Jayme Locke, M.D., recently received an R01 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health for her research, “CKD Risk Prediction among Obese Living Kidney Donors.” The roughly $3.3 million award will be distributed over the course of five years.

Fourth-year medical student Kathryn Hudak presents her research at the 2017 Dale J. Benos Medical Student Research Day on Nov. 13.

Four medical students from the labs of four Department of Surgery faculty placed at this year’s UAB SOM Dale J. Benos Medical Student Research Day on Nov. 13.

Faculty interested in being considered for the 2018 promotion and tenure cycle should approach their division director immediately because the deadline for submission to the Department of Surgery is Monday, December 4.