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The UAB Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery has partnered with the Deep South Cancer Foundation in the hopes of becoming one of the top FUNders for the Magic City Cycliad. Join the UAB GI Surgery team at the Magic City Cycliad on March 24 at the UAB Kirklin Clinic to benefit the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. The ride costs nothing to enter, but if you cannot attend, you are encouraged to donate via this link.

Join the UAB Surgery team at the Birmingham Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis walk on April 28 .

Join the UAB Surgery team at the Birmingham Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis walk on April 28 at Homewood Park to benefit the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. If you can’t join the walk, we encourage you to donate via this link.

Nominate a faculty member who demonstrates extraordinary commitment to engaging UAB's undergraduate students for the Provost's Awards for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research, Service Learning and Education Abroad by March 30 using this online form. Any UAB student, faculty, staff, or community member may make a nomination by completing and submitting a short paragraph describing why the nominee is deserving of the award.

Jennifer Foster

Jennifer Foster will now serve as the UAB Department of Surgery’s director of development. Foster joins the department after serving as director of development for the UAB Provost Office, UAB Honors College and UAB Libraries. A graduate of Auburn University, she has been a major gifts officer for the Alys Stephens Center and has worked with alumni and development at Children's of Alabama, the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and Auburn University.

Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy Director Adam Beck, M.D., and general surgery research resident Margaux Mustian, M.D., have been selected to join the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. AOA is a professional medical organization that recognizes and advocates for excellence in scholarship and the highest ideals in the profession of medicine.

Second-year medical student Jameson Weiner’s award-winning ERAS research was recently featured in PM360, a magazine for marketing decision makers in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries. The report came as a result of Weiner’s presentation at the American Surgical Congress in Jacksonville, Florida, last month.

Shelby Bergstresser, MS3, was the overall winner of the Southeastern Surgical Congress Gold Medal Award for the research she presented at the SESC 2018 Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida.

Third-year UAB medical student Shelby Bergstresser was the overall winner of the Southeastern Surgical Congress Gold Medal Award for her presentation at the SESC 2018 Annual Meeting on the staging systems of hepatocellular carcinoma, “Prognostic Value of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Staging Systems.” The Gold Medal Award is a prestigious recognition of excellent research by young surgeons.

Shelby BergstresserThird-year UAB medical student Shelby Bergstresser has been named a Top 6 Gold Medal Finalist by the Southeastern Surgical Congress for her oral abstract, “Prognostic Value of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Staging Systems.” Bergstresser will present her research at the SESC 2018 Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida, Feb. 10-13.

Her mentor, Jared White, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Transplantation, said she was one of the department’s star medical students and looks forward to her presentation at SESC. Bergstresser also presented her research at the 2018 Academic Surgical Congress in Jacksonville, Florida, last month.

 See also: "White’s mentee overall winner of SESC Gold Medal Award."

Dr. Robert RussellThe Division of Pediatric Surgery’s  Robert Russell, M.D., has received a New Investigator Award from the Kaul Pediatric Research Institute for his project, “Coagulopathy Following Head Injury in Pediatric Trauma: From Bedside to Bench.” The award is for $35,000 per year for a two-year period.

The UAB Department of Surgery's Meixi Ma, M.D., Robert Dabal, M.D., Brett Melnikoff, M.D., and Adam Beck, M.D., showed off their Louisiana cuisine at this year's winning table at the 2018 Diversity Fair.

The UAB Department of Surgery won first place at the 2018 Diversity Fair with their table featuring the department’s Meixi Ma, M.D., Robert Dabal, M.D., Brett Melnikoff, M.D., and Adam Beck, M.D., as well as foods from Louisiana such as gumbo, sausage, king cake and several other delicacies. Departments competed for the honor of best table at the Office for Diversity and Inclusion’s second annual event. The departments of Medicine and Microbiology tied for second place, and the Department of Pathology took home third place.

The UAB Department of Surgery gathers for a photo at the 2018 Academic Surgical Congress in Jacksonville, Floriday, Jan. 30 – Feb. 1.

The UAB Department of Surgery headed to Jacksonville, Florida, last month for the Academic Surgical Congress, Jan. 30 – Feb. 1, 2018. With 71 presentations, UAB boasted the highest number of abstracts submitted from one institution at this year's event, surging ahead of the competition by a margin of 20. A total of 67 from UAB Surgery presented at the three-day meeting.

The Division of Transplantation’s Jayme Locke, M.D., has been awarded an American College of Surgeons Traveling Fellowship to Australia and New Zealand for 2019. As she makes her way around these countries, Locke will write about her travels in the ACS Bulletin.

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.