ASPS Special Achievement Award
Taking from mentors, giving back to trainees and the specialty
F
oad Nahai, MD, is a prime example of taking “the road less traveled” en route to a distinguished career in the specialty. After spending his early years in Tehran, Iran, Dr. Nahai left the country in 1957 to attend boarding school in Canterbury, England, and he remained in the United Kingdom for medical training. He arrived in the United States in 1970, and after two years at Johns Hopkins, he completed general and plastic surgery residencies and a Fellowship at Emory University, Atlanta. Dr. Nahai’s colleagues say that his accomplishments – and the way he’s achieved the various successes throughout his career – made him an ideal recipient of the ASPS Special Achievement Award, which he received during Plastic Surgery The Meeting 2020. “Dr. Nahai epitomizes everything the award was created for,” says ASPS past President Jeffrey Janis, MD. “The award reads ‘For an outstanding physician who has brought credit and distinction to plastic surgery through clinical practice and application, community and civic accomplishments, organization and executive performance, or teaching and research.’ One would think the award was created personally for Dr. Nahai – with a picture of him next to it. It’s hard to think of anyone more deserving of the ASPS Special Achievement Award than him.” ASPS Trustee James Grotting, MD, who bestowed the award to Dr. Nahai, agrees. “I can think of no one who’s been more of an international ambassador for plastic surgery, developing friendships and relationships with plastic surgeons all over the globe,” Dr. Grotting said during the awards ceremony. “Dr. Nahai brought the world of plastic surgery closer together through the bridges he’s built between our specialty and other disciplines. He’s a champion of diversity in the specialty, and innovator and educator par excellence.”
An unexpected honor Dr. Nahai says he was touched that his colleagues chose him for the award, but it was unexpected. “Receiving this award was surprising, special and important to me because while in my early days I was very much involved in ASPS and The PSF, but later in my career my leadership and editorship of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal were all related to a sister society,” he tells PSN. “It speaks very highly and says so much about ASPS and the Board of Trustees that they’d honor me this way.” Dr. Nahai earned his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree at the University of Bristol (United Kingdom), and he competed a medical and surgical internship at United Bristol Hospitals prior to emigrating to the United States. In addition to serving as the Aesthetic Surgery Journal editor, Dr. Nahai was the first Maurice J. Jurkiewicz chair in plastic surgery and professor of surgery at Emory University, and he’s served as president of the Aesthetic Society, American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgical Facilities and International Society of Plastic Surgery, as well as chairman of the Plastic Surgery Research Council. Over the course of his career, Dr. Nahai has edited or co-edited 12 textbooks and published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles on aesthetic and reconstructive surgery. His adaptability and belief in himself began after he somewhat reluctantly left a comfortable life in Iran built by his father, an insurance executive, and found himself at St. Edmunds School, United Kingdom, at age 12. “Once I got over the initial shock and disSeptember 2021
ruptive change of leaving a reasonably well-off family to go to a boarding school in England, I loved it – and I don’t regret one minute of it,” he says. “I learned self-discipline, what commitment means and that if I start something I’m going to finish it. I learned that failure is not fatal, although to this day I do have fear of failure. I learned to persevere – and that the good that happens to me is a consequence of my own behavior and choices, and if anything unfavorable happens, that’s equally a result of my own behavior and choices.”
Acknowledging his commitment Dr. Nahai says he’d prefer to be known as a mentor, educator and leader as much as any-
Dr. Nahai shows off his ASPS Special Achievement Award during PSTM20.
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thing else, qualities for which he feels were highlighted at Plastic Surgery The Meeting. “I believe I’ve been recognized for my commitment to education and to training the next generation of plastic surgeons,” he says. “I’d also like to think I’ve been able to do this not just by teaching them, but also by example – by my deeds as well as my spoken or written words. “The second reason for the award may be the modest contributions I’ve made to the evolution and advancement of reconstructive surgery through general research, anatomical research and innovation, dating back to my early days as resident at Emory,” Dr. Nahai adds. “I had worked with leaders such as
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