2026 News Highlights

The 24^th  Annual William C. Wood Research Symposium showcased the basic and clinical science research of the Emory Department of Surgery's students, residents, and clinical and post-doctoral fellows on Thursday, April 30, 2026 in the Emory University Hospital Auditorium. This year’s event included two oral presentation sessions as well as basic and clinical sciences quickshot sessions. These sessions were well attended and truly highlighted the impactful research being conducted in our Department.

First place winners this year were:

Oral Presentations

Evan Straub (1st Place: Basic Science Oral Presentation)

Nicole Petcka (1^st Place: Clinical Science Oral Presentation)

Quickshot Presentations

Francie Bennett (1^st Place: Basic Science Quickshot)

Katherine Welch (1^st Place Clinical Science Quickshot)

Runners up this year were:

Oral Presentations

Supreet Randhawa (Basic Science Oral Presentation)

Aubrey Reed (Basic Science Oral Presentation)

Julie Byrnes (Clinical Science Oral Presentation)

Katherine Chandler (Clinical Science Oral Presentation) 

Quickshot Presentations

Katie Alexander (Basic Science Quickshot)

Chris He (Clinical Science Quickshot)

The keynote address, "Cancer-Associated Thrombosis: From Unmet Need to Therapeutic Opportunity,” was delivered by Elliot L. Chaikof, MD, PhD. Dr. Chaikof is Chair of the Department of Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering of Harvard University, the Broad Institute and holds a faculty appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

He received his B.A. and M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his training in General Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and in Vascular Surgery at Emory University. He served on faculty at Emory University for 20 years following the completion of his training, the last 10 of which he served as the John E. Skandalakis Professor and Chief of Vascular Surgery.