Surgeon Wraps Up Connections with Convocation Lecture

Atul Gawande, surgeon and author of Complications: A Surgeon’s Note on an Imperfect Science, spoke to 1,700 freshman students and local community members at Utah State University in a Convocation Lecture that concluded 2007 Connections.

Daedree Holmes, a freshman at USU studying Medicine, commented that hearing Gawande speak increased her determination to accomplish the things that she wants to do. She also added that it increased her hope of being able to be successful in her academic endeavors.

 

Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science was the selected title for USU’s 2007 Common Literature Experience. The book is a compilation of 14 essays written for The New Yorker magazine, where Gawande is a staff writer covering medicine and science.

 

In addition to his work at The New Yorker, Gawande is a staff member of Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. zine. He received his B.A.S. from Stanford University, M.A. (in politics, philosophy, and economics) from Oxford University, M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is also associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, associate professor in the department of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and associate director for the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health. He has published research studies in areas ranging from surgical technique, to U.S. military care for the wounded, to error and performance in medicine. He is the Director of the World Health Organization's Global Challenge for Safer Surgical Care.

 

Lisa Watkins, a senior at USU stated that Gawande’s presentation touched all students and that he connected with each student on a personal level as they are preparing to enter the colligate world.

 

In 2006, Gawande received the MacArthur Award for his research and writing. His nonfiction writing was selected to appear in the annual Best American Essays collection twice and in Best American Science Writing five of the last six years. His book Complications: A surgeon’s Note on an Imperfect Science was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002 and is published in more than a hundred countries. He is editor of the best American science 2006. His most recent book, Better: A Surgeons Notes on Performance was published in April 2007.

 

Connections is designed to ease students’ transitions to Utah State and to prepare them the collegiate experience. Gawande’s book was chosen as the common literature experience and study/journal assignment. Convocation lectures are co-sponsored by ASUSU Arts and Lectures Series and the Utah Humanities Council.