Association for Academic Surgery (AAS)
Inspiring and Developing Young Academic Surgeons
The Academic Surgeon is the official blog of the AAS. We post anywhere from one to three times a week and our contributors will focus on issues relevant to young academic surgeons, residents, fellows, and even medical students.
If you would like to contribute, please submit your post here: https://www.aasurg.org/the-academic-surgeon-blog-submission/
The Academic Surgeon is the official AAS Blog!
Ethics Committee Cover Art Entry – Clinical photo from 2021 that illustrates the thankless aspects of surgery, the gifted hands that contribute to surgery through retraction and positioning. Photo captured during a minimally-invasive open arthroplasty of a temporomandibular joint prosthesis.
TL;DR: What I Wish I’d Known (if you don’t have time to read the whole thing…) You don’t need to have it all figured out. I started medical school thinking I’d be a neurosurgeon. Now, I find myself drawn to endocrine and pediatric surgery. Interests evolve, and that’s okay. The skills you gain matter more …
A career as an academic surgeon offers unparalleled rewards: the privilege of transforming patient lives in the operating room, the thrill of pioneering research discoveries, and the satisfaction of mentoring the next generation of surgical leaders. Yet the journey rarely follows a straight line. Funding climates shift, clinical landscapes evolve, and external pressures—from institutional priorities …
Mid-sentence I grabbed the Thompson retractor as my body instinctively protected itself from falling as my subconsciousness hit the off button and I fell asleep standing. It was a living donor liver transplant that I had scrubbed into to assist. I quickly brought myself to attention, naively thinking no one had noticed. I was thankfully …
We are delighted to announce the 2025 Faculty Award Winners! The AAS and AAS Foundation sponsor several travel, research, and presentation awards to support our members. Congratulations to you all!
We are pleased to announce the winners of the Best Overall Manuscript by an AAS Member and Best Manuscript by an AAS Resident or Fellow. Congratulations to you both!
It’s easy to assume that once you choose a subspecialty, you’ve chosen your academic identity too. But for me, as a transplant surgeon, it’s been just the opposite. The more specific my clinical and research work became, the more I needed a broader academic home. I’ve been part of the AAS since medical school, and …
Basic and translational surgeon scientists are a rare breed. We are frequently arguing for our relevance and place in the fast-paced world of cutting-edge clinical care and laboratory biomedical research. As we think about the merits of the pathway, what better way to seek inspiration then to look to our predecessors, the legends of translational …
Saucony Ride 17: As she pulls me over her foot, I wonder, “how fast are we going today?” I am hoping to pick up the pace and feel that sense of flying. However, after hastily slipping me on, we are out the door without even so much as a dynamic stretch. From the moment she …
It is an understatement to say that there has been substantial uncertainty for surgeon-scientists around the country regarding the future of scientific funding. As context, I am a PGY-5 general surgery resident, soon-to-be complex general surgical oncology fellow, and aspiring surgeon-scientist with an interest in running an independently funded basic and translational science lab. On …
