Honorary Lectures at Annual Meeting: Meet the Speakers

John Conley, MD, Lecture on Medical Ethics Sunday, September 9, 8:30 am, Ballroom A and B “A Physician’s Perspective as a Throat Cancer Patient” Itzhak Brook, MD, is an adjunct professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He earned his medical degree and completed his residency at Hebrew University, Hadassah School of Medicine, in Jerusalem, Israel, and obtained his master’s degree in pediatrics from the University of Tel Aviv in Israel. Subsequently he completed a fellowship in adult and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles. He served in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy for 27 years. Dr. Brook is the past chair of the Anti-infective Drug Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He has done extensive research on anaerobic and respiratory tract infections, anthrax, and infections following exposure to ionizing radiation. He is the author of six medical textbooks, 108 medical book chapters, and several hundred scientific publications. He is an editor, associate editor, and member of the editorial board of several medical journals and the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance. Dr. Brook was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006. Two years later he had his larynx removed and currently speaks with a tracheoesophageal prosthesis. He is the author of the book My Voice, a Physician’s Personal Experience with Throat Cancer. Neel Distinguished Research Lecture Monday, September 10, 9:30 am, Room 202A “Towards Personalized Sleep Apnea Surgery” Allan I. Pack, MD, PhD, is professor of medicine and director of the Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s Translational Research Laboratory. Dr. Pack is pursuing research on genetics/genomics of sleep and its disorders. His laboratory is conducting studies in drosophila and mice and translating these findings to humans. A focus of Dr. Pack’s work is to evaluate the genetic determinants of sleep homeostasis. Studies are ongoing to evaluate molecular mechanisms of sleepiness and sleep promotion using both hypothesis-driven and discovery science. The latter involves analysis of the changes in the transcription with sleep/wake and sleep deprivation in identified neuronal populations. Techniques being used include behavioral/sleep studies in drosophila and mice, RT-PCR, Western analysis of protein, expression profiling, laser microcapture dissection, and  immunohistochemistry. Dr. Pack is committed to research training and directs two training grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Pack is well known for his outstanding leadership and vision in the sleep field, contributions to original research, and exceptional mentoring. AAO-HNSF/Michael M. Paparella, MD Endowed Lecture for Distinguished Contributions in Clinical Otology Tuesday, September 13, 8:00 am, Room 202A Joseph B. Nadol Jr., MD, is the Walter Augustus Lecompte Professor and chair of the department of otology and laryngology at the Harvard Medical School and chief of the department of otolaryngology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. After completing his medical school training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he did his residency training in otolaryngology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School. Professional activities include the clinical practice of otology and neurotology, teaching residents and medical students, and otologic research for more than 35 years. His principal area of research is pathology of the ear as studied by light and electron microscopy. He was the recipient of the Claude Pepper Award for Excellence in Research from the National Institutes of Health in 1990, the Shambaugh Prize in otology by the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum in 2008, and the Award of Merit from the American Otological Society in 2012. He has also served as the president of the American Otological Society. He was the Ben Senturia Lecturer in the department of otolaryngology at Washington University in 2011. He will lecture on the contemporary relevance of human otopathology to clinical otology. Eugene N. Myers, MD International Lecture on Head and Neck Surgery Wednesday, September 12, 9:30 am, Room 202A Johannes (Johan) J. Fagan, MBChB, FC(SA), is the Leon Goldman Professor and chair of the division of otolaryngology at the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. After his residency training at the University of Cape Town, he completed two clinical fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh in head and neck/cranial base surgery and in otology/neurotology. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is the president of the South African College of Otorhinolaryngology, Honorary Registrar of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa, Assistant General Secretary of the Pan-African Federation of Otolaryngologic Societies (PAFOS), and represents Africa and the Middle East on the executive committee of the International Federation of Otolaryngologic Societies (IFOS). A major interest of his is to advance head and neck surgery in Africa and the developing world. He established the Karl Storz Fellowship in Advanced Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Cape Town, and is currently training the seventh African head and neck fellow. He maintains an educational website for ENT surgeons in the developing world, and has edited and co-written The Open Access Atlas of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Operative Surgery. Of plans for the lecture, Dr. Fagan said, “I shall present an overview of the status of and the challenges relating to head and neck surgery in Africa and in the developing world. I shall discuss initiatives that address challenges relating to teaching and training and establishing head and neck surgery centers of excellence in Africa, and the need to promote open access educational resources.”