The AASLD Distinguished Clinician Educator/Mentor Award is given in honor of the sustained service of clinician educators to AASLD or the liver community in general. The award recognizes the skills of outstanding clinicians and educators who have made momentous contributions to hepatology over an extended period. The awardee need not be a member of the AASLD. Current members of the AASLD Governing Board are not eligible.
Presentation of the 2009 Distinguished Clinician Educator/Mentor Award to Laurie Blendis, MD
Professor Laurie Blendis graduated with Honors from the University of London and studied hepatology under Professor Roger Williams at King’s College Hospital. After time with Professor Norman Levinsky at the Boston University Medical School and Sir Francis Avery Jones at Central Middlesex Hospital, he became professor of medicine at the University of Toronto (UT) in 1983. Dr. Blendis was appointed to the staff of the Alcohol and Addiction Center and was later a founding member of the liver transplantation unit. Initially headed by Drs. Bernard Langer and Gary Levy, the UT Liver Program moved under the leadership of Dr. Blendis beginning in 1990. Dr. Blendis was also a visiting professor and senior clinical scientist at the Sackler School of Medicine, University of Tel Aviv. While there, he worked closely with Professors Zamir Halpern and Ran Oren. Dr. Blendis served as the associate editor of HEPATOLOGY from 1998-2001 and in 2002 he retired. He currently lives in Israel and continues to work part time.
Distinguished Clinician Educator/Mentor Awardees
2008 Albert J Czaja, MD
2009 Laurie Blendis, MD