Noted Upstate surgeon Dr. Patricia Numann, now president of the American College of Surgeons

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Patricia J. Numann, MD, FACS, the Lloyd S. Rogers Professor of Surgery Emeritus, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, and a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, added president of the American College of Surgeons to a long list of career accomplishments when she was installed as the 92nd president of the organization Oct. 23 during the opening of its Clinical Congress in San Francisco.

A resident of Syracuse, Numann has ardently devoted her entire professional life to Upstate Medical University. After earning a medical degree there in 1965, she completed a combined internship in medicine and surgery (1965-66) and then trained as a general surgery resident (1966-70). After residency, she was appointed assistant professor of surgery (1970-75), and then rose through the academic ranks at SUNY Upstate serving as associate professor of surgery (1975-89); associate dean of the college of medicine (1978-84); associate dean of the college of medicine clinical affairs (1989-94); professor of surgery (1989-2007); medical director of the university hospital (1997-2007); and Lloyd S. Rogers Professor of Surgery (2000-07).

Throughout her surgical career, Numann's clinical and scientific interests have focused on breast disease and thyroid and parathyroid disease, a commitment reflected in the establishment of the Patricia J. Numann Breast & Endocrine Surgery Center at Upstate in 2007. Numann has also served as an author or co-author of several chapters in surgical textbooks as well as numerous journal articles and abstracts, many of which focus on breast and parathyroid disease.

Known as an outstanding and motivating educator, Numann has received numerous honors for her teaching, including the (Upstate) President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Numann became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) in 1974 and she has actively contributed to the work of the College for many years. Since 2003, she has been Director of the ACS Fundamentals of Surgery Curriculum.

In addition to membership in—and service to—the American College of Surgeons, Numann has been an active leader and member of several national surgical and medical organizations. She was the first woman to serve as chair of the American Board of Surgery (1994-2002) and was vice president of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (1992). She was one of the founding members and president (1985-86) of the Association for Surgical Education and she founded the Association for Women Surgeons in 1982, and later served as its president (1986-87).

Throughout her remarkable career, Numann has received numerous honors and awards at the local, state, and national level, including the New York State Woman of Distinction in Medicine Award (1994), the Nina Starr Braunwald Award of the Association of Women Surgeons (1998); and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Distinguished Service Award (2001).

The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY Inc. named her Humanitarian of the Year in 2003. She next was inducted into the International Women Physicians' Hall of Fame and named "Local Legend" to the National Library of Medicine's Changing Faces of Medicine exhibit (2004). Earlier this year, she was awarded the Prize of the International Society of Surgery/Société Internationale de Chirurgie (ISS/SIC), its highest honor.

In 2009 Upstate created its first endowed chair for a woman: the Patricia J. Numann, MD, Chair of Surgery "in honor of her life's work and outstanding dedication."