Surgery Research Recognition Day
Tuesday, May 19, 2026 | Campus Club
This spring, we are excited to once again celebrate and showcase the work of our research technicians, residents, faculty, staff, and community partners at Surgery Research Recognition Day.
This event will highlight key advancements in basic, translational, clinical, and health informatics research, as well as research aimed at enhancing surgical training, and will reflect the depth of our department's research, its impact on patient care, and the collaborations that extend across the institution and beyond.
Short Oral Presentation (5 minutes + Q&A):
A brief presentation highlighting your research's key findings, methodology, and impact, followed by audience questions. Only one oral presentation will be considered per presenter. Presenters may submit additional work for digital poster consideration. Oral presentation abstracts are due Tuesday, April 14, with acceptance notifications to follow. Presentation slides must be submitted by Friday, May 1, for compilation before the event.
Submissions are now closed.
Digital Poster (digital display ONLY – no presentation):
A concise digital poster display must be submitted as a PDF by Tuesday, April 14, for inclusion in the event’s digital poster compilation. Posters will be shared with attendees via QR code during the event. Digital posters will not be formally presented during the event. Required poster size: 16:9 or 36 in. tall × 48 in. wide equivalent. Please name your file LastName_FirstName_DigitalPoster_Title.pdf. Maximum file size: 10 MB.
Submissions are now closed.
Presentation Awards:
- Overall Best Oral Presentation – Clinical Research
- Overall Best Oral Presentation – Basic & Translational Research
- Overall Best Oral Presentation – Computational & Data Science
- Overall Best Oral Presentation – Educational Research
- Outstanding Oral Presentation – Undergraduate Student
- Outstanding Oral Presentation – Medical Student
- Outstanding Oral Presentation – Graduate Student
- Outstanding Oral Presentation – Resident
- Outstanding Oral Presentation – Fellow / Postdoctoral Scholar
- Outstanding Oral Presentation – Research Staff
To ensure fairness to our judges and event staff, late submissions will not be accepted.
Thank you for your understanding.
Award Nominations and Community Recognition Submissions
Award nominations and community recognition submissions are now closed.
Individual Achievement Awards:
These awards recognize excellence by individuals across key areas of the research enterprise.
Discovery & Translational Research Excellence Award
Recognizes individuals advancing early-stage and translational science across in vitro, ex vivo, and animal model systems. Honors excellence in experimental design, laboratory execution, and moving discoveries toward clinical application.
Clinical & Human Subjects Research Excellence Award
Recognizes individuals contributing to research involving human participants, including clinical trials, interventional studies, and patient-centered research. Honors excellence in study execution, regulatory rigor, participant engagement, and data quality.
Computational & Data Science Research Excellence Award
Recognizes individuals applying computational methods, data science, and informatics across the research pipeline. Honors innovation in modeling, analytics, and data integration to drive discovery and improve outcomes.
Educational Research Excellence Award
Recognizes individuals advancing research in education, training, and workforce development. Honors those improving how we teach, learn, and prepare the next generation of researchers and clinicians.
Research Administrators, Operations, & Support Excellence Award
Recognizes individuals who enable high-quality research through administrative, regulatory, financial, and operational expertise. Honors those who strengthen compliance, efficiency, and research infrastructure.
Research Mentorship Award
Recognizes faculty, staff, and career scientists who provide exceptional mentorship across career stages. Honors those who foster growth, independence, and long-term success in research.
Early Career / Rising Star Award
Recognizes an early-career researcher or research professional who demonstrates exceptional promise, productivity, and impact. Honors individuals emerging as future leaders across any stage of the research pipeline.
Team Science Award:
This award is distinct from individual awards and recognizes outstanding collaborative research efforts.
This award honors multidisciplinary teams whose collective work advances research across multiple stages of the pipeline (e.g., discovery, translational, clinical, computational, or educational research). This award celebrates how impactful science is achieved through collaboration.
Eligibility & Structure:
- Nominations must represent a team (not an individual or single-PI effort)
- Teams should include multiple contributors across roles and/or disciplines
- A defined group of core members must be named
Selection Criteria:
- Strength and integration of collaboration
- Inclusion of diverse roles (e.g., staff, faculty, analysts, coordinators)
- Innovation enabled by team-based approaches
- Impact of the team’s work across the research pipeline
- Evidence of shared leadership and effective teamwork
Recognition:
The award is conferred to the team as a whole, with each core member formally recognized.
Research Excellence Awards:
The Research Excellence Awards recognize outstanding contributions across the full research pipeline within the Department of Surgery—from discovery science to clinical implementation and beyond. These awards honor staff, faculty, and research professionals who advance innovation, collaboration, and impact across in vitro, ex vivo, animal, human, and computational research.
Community Recognition:
Faculty, staff, and trainees are invited to submit notable achievements from the 2025–2026 year, including:
- Promotions and new appointments
- Grant awards and major funding milestones
- Publications and high-impact outputs
- Honors, distinctions, and invited presentations
- Other significant professional achievements
Abstract Posters Winners Archive
2025
2025 Award Winners
Research Mentoring Award – Top Honor: Dr. James Harmon
Research Mentoring Award – Honorable Mention: Dr. Julia Davydova
Research Mentoring Award – Honorable Mention: Dr. Daniel Leslie
Research Staff Excellence Award – Top Honor: Dr. Parthasarathy Rangarajan
Research Staff Excellence Award – Honorable Mention: Dr. Bat-Erdene Namsrai
Research Staff Excellence Award – Honorable Mention: Jody Janecek
Research Support Excellence Award– Top Honor: Nicholas Lemke
Research Support Excellence Award– Honorable Mention: Kelli Tourand
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Clinical Science and Education – Top Honor: Madeline Wethington and James Villar Mead – Enhanced Transesophageal Echocardiography Training by Utilizing 3D Printed Models Derived from Real Human Anatomies
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Clinical Science and Education – Honorable Mention: Dr. Sean Nguyen – Sigmoid Volvulus and Outcomes of Surgical Technique
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Basic & Translational Science – Top Honor: Sydney Phu – Urinary cytokine and chemokine profiling enables noninvasive, injury-specific monitoring of renal injury in nonhuman primates
Overall Best Oral Presentation in the category of Basic & Translational Science – Honorable Mention: Chris Basting- Investigating biomarkers associated with immunological non-response in people with HIV
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Presentation: Kerri Barnes – Correlation between Vitamin D levels and blood calcium
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Presentation: Zach Leslie – Predictors of 90-day Readmission and Morbidity Following Liver Transplantation for Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease
Outstanding Medical Student Presentation: Moretta Nielson – Beyond the Scale: Maping body composition changes in GLP-1 treated nonhuman primates
Outstanding Medical Student Presentation: Kai Bratten – Postoperative Stroke Risk and 30-Day Readmission Profiles After Carotid Endarterectomy vs. Carotid Artery Stenting: A National Readmission Database Analysis (2016-2022)
Outstanding Medical Student Presentation: Jordan Sauve – Successful short-term extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal via modification of an existing intrajugular dialysis catheter in a patient with ARDS: A case report
Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation: Anna Tran – Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Induced Hyperexpression of MHC I and II in Human, Rhesus and Cynomolgus Macaque Islets Increases their Immunogenicity
Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation: Sierra Palmer – The impact of cooperative limb presentation training on neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of cynomolgus macaques in the laboratory environment
Outstanding Resident Presentation: Dr. Alexander Troester – Microbiota Transplant Therapy Effectively Reconstitutes the Gut Microbiome After Colorectal Surgery
Outstanding Resident Presentation: Dr. Jose Foppiani – Post-Traumatic Breast Implant Complications: Insights from the Nationwide Readmission Database
Outstanding Resident Presentation: Dr. Michael Dryden – A Novel Anti-CD154 Non-antibody Fusion Protein Facilitates Long Term Pig to Primate Kidney Xenograft Survival
Outstanding Fellow/Post Doc Presentation: Dr. Hunter Oppler – Mitigating the impact of experimentally-imposed factors as a variable in stress-dependent perturbations of the primate immune system to enhance rigor, reproducibility, clinical translation, and welfare
Outstanding Fellow/Post Doc Presentation: Dr. Koray Potel – Adjunctive Stem Cell-Based Therapies Resolve Persistent Cardiac Dysfunction in a Large Animal Model of Surgical Revascularization
Outstanding Staff Presentation: Dr. Parthasarathy Rangarajan – Perturbations in Transplanted Islets are Critical for Allo and Auto Immune Response in Islet Transplant Recipients
Outstanding Staff Presentation: Dr. Margarita Romanenko – Preclinical Models for Oncolytic Adenoviruses
2023
Clinical/Education Research
"The Importance of p12INK4a: A Biomarker of Frailty in Liver Transplant Recipients"
Travel Award: $1,000
"Chemically induced perimenopause increases MAP in a salt sensitive model of hypertension."
Travel Award: $750
"Missing, not Forgotten: Missing Data by Cancer Center Accreditation in Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results"
Travel Award: $500
"The Development of a Novel CTLA-4lg Fusion Protein for use in Non-Human Primate Transplant models"
Travel Award: $500
Basic/Translational Research
"Intestinal Inflammation has a Greater Impact on Female Fertility than Natural Microbial Exposure in a Co-housed Mouse Model"
Travel Award: $1,000
"Multi-Tissue-Organoid Derived Exosomes for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis"
Travel Award: $750
2022
Clinical/Education Research
"Assess readability of FDA labeling for breast implants"
Travel Award: $1,000
"Loss of Protection from Salt-Sensitive Hypertension in T-cell Deficient SSCD247-/- Rats Enables the Isolation of the Pathological Effects of Renal T-cells from Hypertension"
Travel Award: $750
"Characterization of gut microbiome on tacrolimus metabolism in transplanted nonhuman primates"
Travel Award: $500
Basic/Translational Research
"Evaluation of Minnesota Score in the Allocation of Venovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation During Resource Scarcity"
Travel Award: $1,000
"The Impact of the Kras and ApcΔ468 Oncogenes on the Colorectal Cancer Microbiome"
Travel Award: $750