To honor the legacy of our late President, Chris Tzarnas, M.D., and made possible by the generous contributions of his family, friends, and colleagues; the Academy is pleased to announce the presentation of the 9th annual Chris Tzarnas Surgical Research Award in 2025. The Chris Tzarnas Surgical Research Award represents Dr. Tzarnas’ dedication to trainee education. This award will be presented annually to the 1st prize winner of the Surgical Paper Competition.

Chris Tzarnas Surgical Research Award Winners

2024 | Yazid Ghanem, MD - Cooper Health

2023 | Sara Ginzberg, MD - Penn Medicine

2022 | Theodore E. Habarth-Morales, MS3 -Thomas Jefferson University

2021 | Clara Zhu, MD - Cooper University Hospital

2020 | Brock Hewitt, MD - Thomas Jefferson University

2019 | Andrew Morgan, MD - Cooper University Hospital

2018 | Andrew Newton - University of Pennsylvania

2017 | Megan Lundgren - Thomas Jefferson University

The Annual Surgical Trainee Paper Competition of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery will be held on Monday, February 3, 2025 (in-person). This year’s format will include oral and quick shot presentations.

Cash prizes will be awarded!

Both clinical and basic science work are welcome. Presentations at the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery need not preclude submission to other meetings or publication elsewhere. However, the Academy does expect that the work will be original and that it will be substantially the work of the presenting trainee. In addition, the work should not have been previously published at the time of submission. The trainee must be present at the February 3, 2025 meeting to present his/her work.

Trainees who will be matriculated in an ACGME-accredited residency in surgery or a surgical sub-specialty, medical students, and trainees in surgical fellowships are eligible to apply. Cash prizes will be awarded to the 15 chosen presenters.

Submissions open on November 29, 2024 and the deadline for submission of abstracts for the Surgical Paper Competition is Friday, December 27, 2024 at midnight. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words for the body of the abstract. The headings should include Title/Authors and Affiliations/Background/Methods/Results/Conclusions. One table or figure can be included. Case reports are not accepted. Please note that only one abstract per trainee will be chosen for presentation. Please do not submit more than two abstracts per trainee. Electronic submission is encouraged. For questions or to submit an abstract via email, please contact info@philaacademyofsurgery.org .

Click here to submit your abstract.

The abstracts will be judged in a blinded fashion. Thank you for submitting your work for consideration.