April 1, 2019
The family and friends of the late Dr. Claude H. Organ, Jr., have established an endowment through the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Foundation to provide funding for an annual fellowship to be awarded to an outstanding young surgeon from the Society of Black Academic Surgeons, the Association of Women Surgeons, or the Surgical Section of the National Medical Association. The fellowship, in the amount of $5,000, enables a U.S. or Canadian Fellow or Associate Fellow under age 45 who is a member of one of the aforementioned societies to attend an educational meeting or make an extended visit to an institution of his or her choice, tailored to his or her research interests.
Past awardees have used their fellowships to develop their careers in creative ways. The 2018 fellow, Fabian M. Johnston, MD, FACS, is developing clinical partnerships for research (such as clinical trials, translational research, and qualitative studies) to improve the lives of patients with peritoneal surface malignancies, who would otherwise be committed to only palliative therapies. He plans to establish a research network between U.S. and European allies in the fight against these diseases, beginning in Basingstoke, U.K.
The full requirements for the Claude H. Organ Traveling Fellowship are posted online. The deadline for receipt of all application materials is June 1, with decisions to be made by August 2019. Questions and application materials should be submitted to the attention of the ACS Scholarships Administrator at kearly@facs.org.