Layton F. Rikkers, MD, FACS, former A.R. Curreri Distinguished Chair for the UW–Madison Department of Surgery, received the Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Surgeons during the recent ACS Clinical Congress 2024 in San Francisco.
The Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor bestowed by the ACS. Established in 1957, the award recognizes the exceptional and continuous service of an ACS Fellow, as well as a career with outstanding emphasis on patient care and commitment to the ideals of surgical practice.
“I’m certainly very honored and humbled,” Dr. Rikkers said. “I realize that there are hundreds of other people who are just as deserving.”
Dr. Rikkers served as chair of the UW Department of Surgery from 1996-2008 and was instrumental in advancing the education and research missions of the department while at the same time enhancing clinical care. The number of full-time faculty more than doubled during his time as chair as he championed sub-specialization and recruited top talent to Madison.
Dr. Rikkers remains in Madison and is a professor emeritus within the department of surgery. The department’s alumni group bears his name, The Layton Rikkers Surgical Society, as does the department’s annual Education Retreat and the Layton F. Rikkers Professorship in Surgical Leadership, a position currently held by Dr. Michael Bentz.
Dr. Rikkers has also had a tremendous impact beyond the UW Department of Surgery. His leadership roles included chair of the American Board of Surgery and the Surgical Journals Editors Group, and as president of the Society of Clinical Surgery, Halsted Society, Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, Central Surgical Association, Wisconsin Surgical Society, Society of Surgical Chairs, and American Surgical Association. Dr. Rikkers also served as the editor-in-chief of the Annals of Surgery for 14 years. In 2013, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract established the annual Layton F. Rikkers, MD, Master Clinician Award. In 2018, Dr. Rikkers was awarded the Society of University Surgeons Lifetime Achievement Award.
Specifically within ACS, Dr. Rikkers became an ACS Fellow in 1980 and has held many committee and leadership roles at the College. These include positions on the Young Surgeons Committee, Surgical Education in Medical Schools Committee, Liaison Program Committee, and the Committee on Coaching the Next Generation. In addition, he served on the Board of Governors for six years (2005–2011) and as a First Vice-President of the ACS (2013–2014).
“The thing I am most proud of and enjoyed so very much was conceiving the Surgeons as Leaders course and directing it,” Dr. Rikkers said about his many contributions to the ACS.
The course is meant for surgeons who currently serve or aspire to serve in leadership positions to gain skills in the principles and practice of leadership, from the operating room to the boardroom. It remains popular among aspiring surgeon leaders.
“You remember people early in your career who promoted you,” Dr. Rikkers said. “The reason I had the opportunities I had was because I had some wonderful mentors. I felt an obligation to give back because I had been so generously mentored by so many people.”