Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil, professor and executive chairman of the UCLA Department of Surgery, has received the American Surgical Association's Medallion for Scientific Achievement, joining a list that includes the nation's most distinguished surgeons.

Busuttil, who is internationally recognized for his expertise in liver transplantation and surgery, received the award April 26 during the association's annual meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"To receive this award from the most prestigious surgical organization in the world and to consider the accomplishments of the prior recipients gives me a feeling of great humility," he said. "I could never have achieved this great distinction without the incredibly dedicated and talented medical and surgical team at UCLA, with whom I have had the privilege to work for more than 25 years."

Busuttil, who also holds UCLA's William P. Longmire Jr. Chair in Surgery, is founding chief of the division of liver and pancreas transplantation and director of the Pfleger Liver Institute, which includes the DumontUCLA Transplant Center and the DumontUCLA Liver Cancer Center.

"The UCLA Health System is extraordinarily proud of Dr. Ron Busuttil for this recognition by his peers as one of the foremost liver transplant surgeons in the world," said Dr. Gerald S. Levey, UCLA vice chancellor for medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "UCLA values Ron's leadership as executive chairman of the department of surgery, as well as his commitment to research and teaching the next generation of surgeons."

Busuttil graduated magna cum laude from Loyola University in New Orleans and earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Tulane University. He served his surgical residency at UCLA under Dr. William P. Longmire Jr., UCLA's first chairman of surgery, and trained in transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh with Dr. Thomas Starzl, also a Medallion recipient. Busuttil has been on the UCLA
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Contact: Enrique Rivero
erivero@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-2273
University of California - Los Angeles
10-May-2007