The Layton Rikkers Surgical Society is proud to celebrate the Forward Award on behalf of the University of Wisconsin Department of Surgery. This award recognizes outstanding alumni contributions by current or former residents, faculty, and fellows of the University of Wisconsin Department of Surgery.
The Forward Award is presented annually each fall at the LRSS Alumni Dinner held during the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress. This year’s dinner took place on Oct. 21 in San Francisco.
To say Dr. Herb Chen’s 15 years at Wisconsin were transformative would be an understatement. Hired in 2000 as the department’s first endocrine surgeon, he later served as the Layton F. Rikkers, M.D., Chair in Surgical Leadership, chair of the Division of General Surgery and Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Surgery.
“There has been no faculty hire at Wisconsin that has had more of an impact on the residency program and the department of surgery as Dr. Chen,” said Dr. Rebecca Sippel, who spent two years in Dr. Chen’s research laboratory as a resident at UW and is the current Chair of the Division of Endocrine Surgery. “He created an endocrine surgery program where one didn’t really exist and built it into one of the largest and most respected programs in the country.”
Dr. Chen was an incredible mentor and sponsor and helped to establish many of the faculty at UW as leaders in American surgery. Through his engagement in surgical organizations and his relationships with surgeons around the country he was able to connect faculty to opportunities both locally and nationally that helped them to develop a national reputation. He also used these connections to help recruit outstanding new faculty to join the department.
Dr. Chen was instrumental in developing robust and innovative research opportunities for the residents which helped to establish the department’s residency program as one of the top training programs for residents specifically interested in pursuing academic surgery.
For his varied contributions to the UW-Madison Department of Surgery, Dr. Chen was named the recipient of the Forward Award at the LRSS Alumni Dinner on Oct. 21, 2024 in San Francisco.
“I am extremely honored to be recognized,” Dr. Chen said. “So many UW Surgery faculty have made landmark contributions to the field of surgery, and are much more deserving of this award than me. I am humbled to be chosen.”
Following his time at UW, Dr. Chen was named the Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is also currently the Surgeon-in-Chief of UAB Hospital and Health System, and the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine. He is a Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Biomedical Engineering, and holds the Fay Fletcher Kerner Endowed Chair.
Dr. Chen is the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Surgery. He has held several leadership positions in major academic societies including President of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons Foundation, President of Association for Academic Surgery, President of the Society of Clinical Surgery, President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES), President of Surgical Biology Club II, and President of the AAES Foundation. Dr. Chen has mentored over 150 faculty, post-doctoral fellows, residents, medical students, and undergraduates in his lab. He has published over 690 original research and review articles and has edited 29 textbooks.
A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Chen received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and began his medical education at the Duke University School of Medicine, graduating in 1992. He completed his surgical residency in general surgery at Johns Hopkins in 1999, along with a postdoctoral research fellowship in 1997 and a surgical oncology and endocrinology fellowship in 2000. He was recruited back to Wisconsin by Dr. Layton Rikers, then the chair of the department.
“What most attracted me to the department was my meeting with Layton Rikkers and his vision for the for the future,” Dr. Chen said. “He was an incredible mentor, sponsor, and friend. Dr. Rikkers did so much for my career and family as well as for many others.”