Surgeons, trainees, and others were honored with special awards presented during Clinical Congress 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. They include:
Distinguished Service Award
Marshall Z. Schwartz, MD, F番茄社区app (Winston-Salem, NC)
Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Award
John L. Cameron, MD, F番茄社区app (Baltimore, MD)
Mary Edwards Walker Inspiring Women in Surgery Award
Anna Marie Ledgerwood, MD, F番茄社区app (Detroit, MI)
Distinguished Philanthropist of the Year Award
Lorrie Langdale, MD, F番茄社区app (Seattle, WA)
番茄社区app/Pfizer Surgical Volunteerism and Humanitarian Awards
- Academic Global Surgeon Award: Linda P. Zhang, MD, F番茄社区app (New York, NY)
- Surgical Humanitarian Award: William Rhodes, MD, F番茄社区app (Kapsowar, Kenya)
- International Surgical Volunteerism Award: Ziad C. Sifri, MD, F番茄社区app (Newark, NJ)
- Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award: Thomas Romo III, MD, F番茄社区app (New York, NY)
- Military Surgical Volunteerism Award: Tamara J. Worlton, MD, F番茄社区app, FASMBS (Bethesda, MD)
- Resident Surgical Volunteerism Award: Nathan Brand, MD (San Francisco, CA)
RAS-番茄社区app Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award
Edith Tzeng, MD, F番茄社区app (Pittsburgh, PA)
Jameson L. Chassin Award for Professionalism in General Surgery
Callie Hlavin, MD, MPH (Pittsburgh, PA)
Resident Award for Exemplary Teaching
Julie M. Clanahan, MD, MHPE (St. Louis, MO)
Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson II Promising Investigator Award
Tasce Bongiovanni, MD, MPP, MHS, F番茄社区app (San Francisco, CA)
History of Surgery Poster Competition
- First Place: Maxime Visa and Andre Sobocinski, MLS (Chicago, IL and Falls Church, VA): 鈥淏ulkheads on Battlefields: US Navy Medical Units Aboard Landing Ship Tanks at Normandy鈥�
- Second Place: Tamara Almada, MD, F番茄社区app (Buenos Aires, Argentina): 鈥淏eyond the Scalpel: The First Filmed Surgery and The Global Birth of Medical Cinema, 1899鈥�
CoC State Chair Outstanding Performance Award
John M. Lyons III, MD, F番茄社区app, FSSO (Baton Rouge, LA)
CoC Cancer Research Paper Competition
Basic Science
First place: Shravan Leonard-Murali, MD (Pittsburgh, PA): 鈥淧rospective Histology and Mutation Agnostic Assessment of Systemic Tumor Burden with Plasma Cell-Free DNA Concentration in 1000 Cancer Patients鈥�
Clinical Research
- First place: Jaspinder Sing Sanghera, MBChB, iBSc (Birmingham, AL): 鈥淚mpact of Fragmentation on Timely Receipt of Guideline-Concordant Treatment in Foregut Cancer鈥�
- Second place: Jennifer H. Chen, MD (Houston, TX): 鈥淧rognostic Value of Circulating Tumor Cell Dynamics in Melanoma鈥�
- Third place: Chris Varghese, MBChB (Rochester, MN): 鈥淧redicting Treatment Response After Total Neoadjuvant Therapy for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer鈥�
Medical Student Program Poster Awards
Basic Science
- First place: Adam Boukind (St. Louis, MO): 鈥淏ioengineered Composite Promotes Neovascularization and Functional Recovery in Hindlimb Ischemia鈥�
- Second place: Ryan Luedtke (Kalamazoo, MI): 鈥淎utologous Blood Clots Improve Healing and Angiogenesis Following Thermal Burns in a Rat Model鈥�
Clinical Science
- First place: Rimla Khan (Colton, CA): 鈥淓valuating Concomitant Procedures and Clinical Predictors of Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Failure鈥�
- Second place: James Burns (Boca Raton, FL): 鈥淪urvival Outcomes Following Local Excision Compared to Abdominoperineal Resection After Chemoradiotherapy for Anal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An NCDB Propensity Score-Matched Analysis鈥�
Education, Innovation, or Outcomes
- First place: Michael Rallo (New Brunswick, NJ): 鈥淯ndervalued: Disparities in Medicaid Reimbursement for Acute Care Surgery Services in the United States鈥�
- Second place: Meghana Akula (Washington, DC): 鈥淣ational Outcomes and Management Trends of Severe Liver Trauma鈥�
Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum ePosters of Exceptional Merit
- Francesco Celotto, MD (Vicenza, Italy): 鈥淎 Machine Learning Model for Pathological Complete Response Prediction and Automated MRI Segmentation in a Rectal-Sparing Approach to Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer鈥�
- Raymond Dunn, MD, F番茄社区app (Worcester, MA): 鈥淐ontinuous Versus Releasable Plating Systems for Sternal Closure: Evaluating Postoperative Outcomes and Complication Rates鈥�
- Japnit Dham, MSc (Forest Hills, NY): 鈥淓fficacy and Safety of Rezum Water Vapor Thermal Ablation for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Large Prostates: A Multi-Center Retrospective Study鈥�
- Victory Chang, MD (Montes de Oca, San Pedro, Costa Rica): 鈥淓valuation and Initiative to Reduce Burnout in General Surgery Residents in a Latin American Country with Middle to High Resources: A Cross-Sectional Study鈥�
- Riah Lee (Schaumburg, IL): 鈥淚dentifying Risk Factors for Early Graft Failure in Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: A UNOS-Based Study鈥�
- Manuel Castillo-Angeles, MD, MPH (Brookline, MA): 鈥淟oss of Independence Following Common General Surgery Procedures: Quality Benchmarking for Older Adults鈥�
- Jason Zhang (Chicago, IL): 鈥淧ayer Trends for Office-Based Plastic Surgery Visits from 2002-2022: A MEPS Analysis鈥�
- Elizabeth Bacon, MPH (Ann Arbor, MI): 鈥淪ocial Determinants of Health and Financial Toxicity Post-Thyroidectomy: Identifying Patients 鈥極n That Edge鈥欌��
- Fatemah Akbarpoor (Dubai, UAE): 鈥淯se of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Traumatic Injuries with Respiratory Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis鈥�
Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Excellence in Research Awards
Bariatric/Foregut
Seung Hyeon Shim (Cleveland, OH): 鈥淓ndoscopic Per-Oral Pyloromyotomy (POP/G-POEM) Versus Laparoscopic Gastric Electrical Stimulator (GES) for Gastroparesis: A Propensity-Matched Multicenter Trial鈥�
Breast
Abbas Hassan, MD, PhD (Indianapolis, IN): 鈥淟ong-Term Outcomes of Lymphedema After Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction Following Axillary Lymph Node Dissection鈥�
Colon and Rectal Surgery
Matthew Hill, MD (New York, NY): Risk of Metachronous Colorectal Cancer Following Segmental Colectomy or Extended Resection in Patients with Lynch Syndrome
Endocrine
Anjani, Turaga, MD (Jersey City, NJ): 鈥淢EN1 Knockout Tumoroid Model Reveals Functional and Transcriptomic Disruptions in Stem Cell-Derived Islets鈥�
Ethics
Matthew Marraco (Orlando, FL): 鈥淢edical School Personal Statements: A Comparison Between AI-Generated and Human-Authored Essays鈥�
General Surgery
William Head, MD (Columbus, OH): 鈥淔unctional Recovery After Ventral Hernia Repair: Longitudinal Trends and the Limits of Improvement鈥�
Geriatric/Palliative Care
Alexander Agathis, MD (New York, NY): 鈥淭he New Modified 4-Factor Functional Frailty Index (mFF-4) in General Surgery: A Predictive and More Suitable Phenotype Tool鈥�
Global Surgery and Humanitarian Outreach
Madhushree Zope, MD, MS (Birmingham, AL): 鈥淣ovel Insights into Post-Operative Morbidity for Pediatric Surgical Patients in Malawi Using Telephone Follow-Up鈥�
Health Services Research
Patrick Johnson, MD, MPH (Ann Arbor, MI): 鈥淐hanges in Medical Debt Before and After Emergency General Surgery Admission鈥�
Hepatobiliary and Pancreas
- Jennifer Cillis, MD (Duarte, CA): 鈥淥ncolytic Properties of the Chimeric Poxvirus HOV-2 in Cholangiocarcinoma Models鈥�
- Liti Zhang, MD (Los Angeles, CA): 鈥淪urgical Outcomes After Pancreatectomy for Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors in Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1 and Von Hippel-Lindau Syndrome: A Large Multi-Institutional Cohort Study (Quick-Shot)鈥�
Orthopaedic Surgery
Bill Young (Stanford, CA): 鈥淒oes Traumatic Brain Injury Increase Opioid Utilization After Total Hip Arthroplasty?鈥�
Neurosurgery
Ruju Talati (Aurora, IL): 鈥淣ovel Biomarker in Perilesional Cerebral Fluid During Breast and Lung Brain Metastasis Resection鈥�
Pediatric Surgery
Jessica Wright, MD (McDonald, TN): 鈥淪urgical Murine Model of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia鈥�
Plastic/Maxillofacial Surgery
Shahnur Ahmed, MD (Indianapolis, IN): 鈥淧rophylactic Buried Dermal Flap with Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction: Effect on Functional Outcomes Following Axillary Lymph Node Dissection鈥�
Surgical Education
Rachael Acker, MD (Philadelphia, PA): 鈥淏elonging in Surgical Residency: A Nationwide Cohort Study鈥�
Surgical Oncology
- Aparna Vancheswaran, MD (New York, NY): 鈥淏 Cell Depletion Augments Talimogene Laherparepvec (T-VEC) Reversal of Anti-PD1 Resistance鈥�
- Peter Bryant, MD (Nashville, TN): 鈥淓ffects of Palliative Care in Patients Undergoing Major Abdominal Surgery for Cancer 6 Months After Surgery鈥�
Thoracic Surgery
Aidan Aicher, MD (New Brunswick, NJ): 鈥淚nduction of Immunogenic Cancer Cell Death via mRNA Lipid Nanoparticle Treatment鈥�
Transplantation & Tissue Engineering
Marissa Di Napoli, MD (Shreveport, LA): 鈥淭he Sex-Based Survival Disparity Persists in Liver Transplantation: Meld 3.0 Fails to Improve Upon the Disadvantage for Waitlisted Women鈥�
Trauma/Burn/Critical Care
Janet Ashley, MD (Houston, TX): 鈥淯se of Extracellular Vesicles for Neuroinflammation and Response to Injury鈥�
Urology
Max Yudovich, MD (Hershey, PA): 鈥淐an Artificial Intelligence Effectively Interpret Urologic Imaging Studies?鈥�
Vascular Surgery
Mounika Naidu Boya, MD (Philadelphia, PA): 鈥淥bjective Coagulation Assays for Predicting Thrombosis in Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)鈥�
