Past events

My Journey to Success in the US - an afternoon with Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D.

Saturday, November 20, 2021, at 3:00pm

The Kosciuszko Foundation Collegium of Eminent Scientists

cordially invites you to attend: 

My Journey to Success in the US

- An afternoon with Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D. 

Saturday, November 20, 2021, 3 PM 

The Kosciuszko Foundation: 15 E 65th Street, New York, NY 10065

Free and open to the public. In lieu of admission, a donation towards the KF is highly appreciated. Seats are limited. Registration and proof of vaccination are required to enter. 

The lecture summarizes the journey of  Maria Siemionow MD, PhD., from the day when she graduated from  Poznan Medical Academy and decided to visit several international centers specializing in the developing field of reconstructive microsurgery. These centers included the Hospital of  Invalid Foundation in  Helsinki Finland, the famous Christine Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery Surgery in Louisville Kentucky, and the leading US centers at the University of Utah, the Cleveland Clinic, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

The lecture outlines the scientific, surgical, ethical, and philosophical challenges encountered during the journey in preparation for the US first face transplantation. 

Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.  - a world-renowned scientist and expert on vascularized composite allografts, hand surgery, peripheral nerve surgery, and microsurgery. In 2008, Prof. Siemionow led a team of surgeons that performed the first near-total face transplant in the U.S at the Cleveland Clinic. 

Prof. Siemionow served as Director of Plastic Surgery Research and Head of Microsurgical Training for Cleveland Clinic's Department of Plastic Surgery. In 2005, she was appointed Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and in 2008, received an honorary academic appointment as Professor of Surgery at the Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznan, Poland. She currently serves as Professor and Director of Microsurgery Research, University of Illinois, College of Medicine. 

Prof. Siemionow earned her medical degree from the Poznan Medical Academy in 1974, after which she completed her residency in orthopedics. She earned a Ph.D., in 1985, for her thesis Evaluation of different microsurgical techniques of vessel anastomosis of diameter less than one millimeter and also completed a hand surgery fellowship at the Christine Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery in Louisville, KY. In 1990, Prof. Siemionow was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah, and in 1992, she earned a Ph.D., DSc for her thesis Hemodynamics of the microcirculation of the free muscle flap, direct in vivo study. She has authored more than 250 scientific publications. 

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