The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) presented several major awards during the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting in Los Angeles. These awards honor the lifetime contribution of members for their surgical, scientific and humanitarian accomplishments.
Distinguished Service Award, Edward Laws, MD, FAANS(L)
The Distinguished Service Award is one of the highest honors given by the AANS, recognizing exemplary service to the AANS and the field of neurosurgery. The award pays tribute to the contributions of remarkable people within their profession.
Edward Laws, MD, FACS, FAANS(L), born in New York City, is a professor of neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. Dr. Laws received his education at Princeton University, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Hospital (internship in surgery, residency in neurosurgery) military service (USPHS – CDC). Dr. Laws is the past president of AANS, CNS ACS, ISPS, WFNS, endocrine society, member National Academy of Medicine, editor of the Journal “Neurosurgery” and a Cushing Medalist.
Humanitarian Award, Alexa Canady, MD, FAANS(L)
Since January 1987, the AANS has conferred its Humanitarian Award to members who have given their time and talents to charitable or public activity and whose actions have brought honor to the neurosurgical specialty.
Alexa Canady, MD, FAANS(L), was born in Lansing, MI, and attended the University of Michigan medical school, graduating with honors. She completed a surgical internship at Yale University and then a neurological surgery residency at the University of Minnesota. Her training was completed with a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
She was chairman of neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Peter Schotanus professor of neurosurgery at Wayne State University for many years and in retirement was lured back into work at the Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola Florida because there was no pediatric neurosurgical care in the Panhandle of Florida. She has received multiple honorary degrees has and authored more than 100 scientific publications.
Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation, Michael Lawton, MD, FAANS
The Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation in Neurosurgery was established in 2013 to honor an AANS member for technical prowess and skill and/or innovation in the development of new procedures, which have become part of the arsenal neurosurgeons use to treat disease or trauma.
Michael T. Lawton, MD, FAANS, is the president and chief executive officer of Barrow Neurological Institute, as well as its chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery and the Robert F. Spetzler Endowed chair in Neurosciences. Additionally, he is the chief of vascular and skull base neurosurgery at Barrow. He specializes in the surgical treatment of aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, arteriovenous fistulas, cavernous malformations and cerebral revascularization, including carotid endarterectomy. As the leader of the largest cerebrovascular center in the country, he has experience in surgically treating more than 5,050 brain aneurysms and over 970 AVMs.
Dr. Lawton has published more than 700 peer-reviewed articles, more than 100 book chapters and six textbooks, including Seven AVMs: Tenets and Techniques for Resection, Seven Bypasses: Tenets and Techniques for Revascularization and Seven Aneurysms: Tenets and Techniques for Clipping, which has won numerous awards and sold more copies than Yasargil’s Microneurosurgery.
Cushing Medal, Regis W. Haid, Jr., MD, FAANS
The Harvey Cushing Medal, the highest honor the AANS can bestow on a member, was established in 1976. Given annually, this award recognizes AANS members for distinguished service and accomplishments in the field of neurosurgery. The Board of Directors selects the recipient upon the recommendation of the Awards and Honors Committee in recognition of his or her extraordinary efforts to advance the field of neurosurgery.
Regis W. Haid, Jr., MD, FAANS, received his undergraduate degree in 1978 from the University of Notre Dame. He received his MD at West Virginia University in 1982 with membership in Alpha Omega Alpha, serving as president of his class. He completed his neurosurgical residency in 1988 at WVU. In 1988-89 he was a clinical instructor at the University of Florida, where he also completed a one-year orthopaedic fellowship in spine surgery. He was promoted to professor at Emor and drector of the Spinal Fellowship Program.
Dr. Haid has been visiting professor at 55 universities worldwide. He has been a course director more than 370 times, lectured at more than 200 spinal courses and presented more than 550 papers. As a widely published author, Dr. Haid has contributed more than 165 scientific articles to peer-reviewed journals, has written or edited 13 textbooks and has written more than 95 chapters on the treatment of spinal disorders.
He is a former board of director of the AANS, former AANS vice president, and a former AANS president. He formerly served as chair of the Board of Directors of the NREF (Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation).
Distinguished Advocate Award, Troy Tippett, MD, FAANS(L)
The AANS Distinguished Advocate Award (new in 2023) recognizes an individual who has served as a strong advocate for neurosurgeons, their patients and the profession at the national, state or local level. Nominees will have demonstrated a commitment to promoting sound legislative and regulatory health policy by consistently engaging in the legislative, regulatory and/or political processes.
Troy Tippett, MD, FAANS(L), is a retired neurosurgeon and medical director of the Neurosurgical Group of Pensacola. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Missouri and he completed medical school and neurosurgery residency at the University of Tennessee in Memphis and is board certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery. He served in the Army Reserve and the Tennessee Air National Guard.
Dr. Tippett served as president of the AANS, the Florida Medical Association, the Neurosurgical Society of America, the Florida Neurosurgical Society, the Escambia County Medical Society and the Neurosurgical Research and Education Foundation. His academic appointments included the University of Florida and Florida State University.
International Lifetime Recognition Award, Marinus H. Koning, MD, FACS
The International Lifetime Service Award recognizes an international neurosurgeon or other international dignitary for his or her lifetime of contributions to advancing the field of neurosurgery in a country outside the United States and Canada.
A native of the Netherlands, Marinus Koning, MD, FACS, received his MD from the Free University of Amsterdam Medical School before moving to the United States to complete his surgical residency at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York City. As a young man, he had a keen interest in tropical medicine, so after his residency program in general surgery, Dr. Koning took a year off to visit tropical countries to gain firsthand knowledge about their medical practices.
After his retirement from his surgical practice in 2008, he chose to pursue international humanitarian work and signed up with Medical Teams International. Inspired by work he did in Ethiopia and his unwavering belief that quality healthcare is a basic human right, Dr. Koning founded ReachAnother Foundation in 2009 to address the high incidence of neural tube defects (spina bifida and hydrocephalus) impacting thousands of pregnancies in Ethiopia each year. The mission of ReachAnother is to increase access to healthcare and education for vulnerable populations in Ethiopia through training and capacity-building to create lasting change.
About the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting:
From April 21-24, 2023, in in Los Angeles, California, neurosurgeons, neurosurgical residents, medical students, neuroscience nurses, clinical specialists, physician assistants, allied health professionals and other medical professionals will join together for the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting. The annual meeting is the largest gathering of neurosurgeons in the nation, with an emphasis on the field’s latest research and technological advances. The scientific presentations scheduled for the 2023 event represent cutting-edge examples of the incredible developments taking place within the field of neurosurgery.
About the AANS:
Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 13,000 members worldwide. The AANS promotes the highest quality of patient care and advances the specialty of neurological surgery. Fellows of the AANS are board-certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, A.C. Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the spinal column, spinal cord, brain, nervous system and peripheral nerves.
For more information, visit www.AANS.org.
