On Oct. 1, 2025, the Department of Surgery hosted an investiture ceremony to celebrate Dr. Rebecca Sippel, Professor and Chair of the Division of Endocrine Surgery and the Dr. Herb Chen Professor in Endocrine Surgery. Dr. Rebecca Minter, Chair of the Department of Surgery, began the ceremony with opening remarks and then presented Dr. Sippel with her medallion. The ceremony concluded with a presentation from Dr. Sippel titled, “Coming Home: The Building of the Endocrine Surgery Program at UW.”
The Dr. Herb Chen Professorship in Endocrine Surgery is awarded to a faculty member who specializes in endocrine surgery and is held for a five-year renewable term.
This professorship is named in honor of Dr. Herb Chen, the Department of Surgery’s first endocrine surgeon. Hired in 2000, Dr. Chen made an extraordinary impact over his 15 years at Wisconsin Surgery. Notably, Dr. Chen built the endocrine surgery program, shaped the residency program and served as a mentor to many of the faculty. Dr. Chen, now the Chair of the Department of Surgery at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and his wife, Harriet, were also in attendance at the ceremony.
“It was during my intern year when Dr. Rikkers recruited Herb Chen to come to the University of Wisconsin and that was really a pivotal part of my academic career,” Dr. Sippel said. “There’s no way I would have gotten to this position without the mentorship and support that I got from my training here at Wisconsin with Dr. Chen.”
The Department of Surgery would like to thank the generous donors and friends that made this professorship possible.