Honorary Awards

Congratulations on receiving the Caroline and William Mark Memorial Award this year. Please comment on receiving the award and what it means to you.
Singularly appreciative and totally surprised!

You will be delivering your award presentation, "The Meaning Of Mentorship; A Personal Story," at the Awards Brunch on Sunday, April 16. Can you share some highlights of your talk?
The central theme of this brief presentation will be about mentorship, something that I had lacked throughout most of my youth. I will tell of a chance meeting with Mac, (D.M. MacDonald). What he saw in me I do not know, but I shall be forever in his debt. He educated me not only in dermatology but also in the skills of communication, composition, writing, grammar, how to run a laboratory, and how to entertain. Leaving the UK for an advanced dermatologic surgery fellowship in Ann Arbor under the guidance of Neil Swanson and Roy Grekin was fundamental in my future as a laser surgeon. And since that time, the many laser colleagues and engineers with whom I have worked are all heroes to me … their imagination, generosity and kindness have been instrumental in my career.

Please share highlights of your background that have contributed to who you are today.
As a young lad, my mother suggested that I should be an auctioneer. Her love of antiques and fun of discovery was shared by me. Plus she said I had the ‘gift of the gab’.  But it was not to be… I chose medical school instead. After training at the Royal Free Hospital in London, I became enamored with dermatology as a specialty.

How has your involvement in ASLMS contributed to your career? Why should young researchers or clinicians become involved with ASLMS?

Brian Zelickson told me in 1989 that if I wanted to understand laser surgery, I needed to join the ASLMS, which I did that same year. Since that time, I have come to regard ASLMS as my spiritual and academic home, where discovery and truth can be found... with a little digging! There’s a lot of caring and support for both clinicians and researchers, and the multispecialty nature of the organization is palpable.

Tell us something our members may not know about you. 
I have the full gamut of ADHD, dyslexia, prosopagnosia, the latter landing me in trouble more often than not.  So if I walk past you without any recognition, please don’t be offended. This way, I can meet you for the first time every day. 

Congratulations on receiving the Dr. Horace Furumoto Distinguished Contributor Award this year. Please comment on receiving the award and what it means to you.
It is truly a great honor for me to receive this award from the Society. I am humbled to join the list of distinguished past recipients that includes my mentors and collaborators. It has been deeply gratifying to see my work benefit patients over the last 20 years. The recognition of my work by the Society in the form of this award is very special to me.

You will be delivering your award presentation, "Innovate by Looking Outside Your Industry," at the Awards Brunch on Sunday, April 16. Can you share some highlights of your talk?
As a laser physicist I have worked in different fields on a variety of laser applications, such as optical data storage, optical communications, and nonlinear optics for biomedical applications. In the two decades since I entered the field of aesthetic laser medicine I have consistently found that my best ideas came from the time I spend in completely unrelated fields. I find that if you are trying to solve a problem, chances are the solution already exists in another industry. You just have to open your mind and look outside your field. In my talk at the awards brunch, I would like to share examples of external ideation from my own experiences.

Please share highlights of your background that have contributed to who you are today.
I come from a family of researchers. My grandfather worked briefly with Prof C. V. Raman of the famed Raman effect. My grandmother earned a doctoral degree in Sanskrit, an ancient language from India. But my love for physics, and especially lasers, comes from my father who is a distinguished laser physicist and is the founding director of one of the largest national research labs in India. As a kid I used to visit his lab and would be fascinated by cool lasers, especially a CO2 laser which could turn a brick into a pool of molten glass. I started my career in academia but moved into industry because I wanted to create products that would make a change in the lives of people. Over the years I have been fortunate to have found incredible mentors who shaped my career, most notably Dr. Jim Hsia, from whom I learnt much of what I know in laser medicine.

How has your involvement in ASLMS contributed to your career? Why should young researchers become involved with ASLMS?
I have been a member of the ASLMS since I entered the field 20 years ago as a young researcher. The Society fosters a great sense of community among practitioners and researchers in laser medicine. I attribute most of my connections in this field to membership in the Society and attending the annual meeting. The journal of the ASLMS is top-notch and is a great way to stay on top of the latest research in the field. I encourage all young researchers to join the ASLMS and to take advantage of the career growth opportunities it offers.

Tell us something our members may not know about you. 
When I am not designing lasers, I like to run. I am currently training for the London Marathon which will be my fifth marathon. I am also a private pilot and I enjoy taking my wife and two daughters to Cape Cod and the islands in the summer. Lesser known is the fact that I once traveled from Switzerland through Liechtenstein and Austria to Germany on inline skates!

Congratulations on receiving the Excellence in Laser Nursing/Allied Health Award this year. Please comment on receiving the award and what it means to you.
Health care is a challenging field both mentally and physically. I have responded to disasters, made it through COVID, and been present at births and deaths. But building the Laser Program for Burn Reconstruction at UNC has been one of my most rewarding activities. It has been both a challenge and a joy. To be recognized for this work means a great deal to me as a provider. To be recognized by my peers at ASLMS makes this award even more meaningful.

You will be delivering your award presentation, " Changing Lives," at the Awards Brunch on Sunday, April 16. Can you share some highlights of your talk?
Burn Reconstruction is a diverse field that includes multiple players, such as surgeons, therapists, pharmacists, and other specialists. With the advent of laser therapy, the remodeling of scar tissue has become a central tenant of reconstruction. Many patients who would have historically required large tissue rearrangements to deal with contractures and scar tissue now require smaller focused surgical releases after laser therapy. In many instances, surgery can even be entirely avoided. Significant issues with neuropathic pain and pruritus in scar tissue can be eliminated with laser therapy, and the medications required to manage these symptoms discontinued. Honestly, after many years in this practice, I still find myself being wowed by the effect of laser therapy on scar tissue.

Please share highlights of your background that have contributed to who you are today.
Having been in nursing for 43 years I have worked in multiple environments including pharmaceutical research, genetics, critical and emergency care, medical practices and surgical practices in both large and small hospitals. All of this adds to my perspective on the care I provide to my patients. Just as patients are the sum of their experiences, so too are we as providers.

How has your involvement in ASLMS contributed to your career? Why should young researchers become involved with ASLMS?
ASLMS is an amazing organization that is dedicated to education and practice. Whenever I am mentoring practitioners on the use and practice of laser therapy, one of the first things I do is recommend they join ASLMS. One of my most successful patient cases (again changing lives) involved a young woman with significant chronic radiation-induced telangiectasia r/t breast cancer. All she wanted was to be able to wear a v-neck shirt without people constantly asking her what was wrong with her skin. I had just finished reading the paper by Dr. Rossi (2018) and his team in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine on the effect of PDL on the quality of life of those with radiation-induced breast telangiectasias and discussed this approach with the patient. She was willing to give it a try, and after only a couple of treatments, she was again happily wearing v-neck shirts – mission accomplished! This one small success was due to the research efforts by Dr. Rossi and his team, the publication in our journal, and the translation to bedside practice by a provider. This is why young researchers should become involved in ASLMS. Research drives practice, and practice produces more questions for research.

Tell us something our members may not know about you.
I love to read sci-fi novels, and I leveled my sorceress to 90 in Diablo II but have taken a break waiting for Diablo IV to drop. 

Please comment on receiving the award and what it means to you.
Receiving the Leon Goldman Award is an incredible honor. Leon Goldman's contributions to laser medicine and surgery are legendary, and to be recognized with an award bearing his name is truly humbling. Realizing that I’m now part of the historic list of Leon Goldman Award recipients makes me extremely proud. 

You will be delivering your award presentation, "Channels for Change," at the Awards Brunch on Sunday, April 16. Can you share some highlights of your talk?
Since the nomination, I’ve thought a lot of about what lessons I may have learned during my career in research, patient care, and education, that are important enough to share. My humble attempt is called “channels of change.” In the talk, I’ll go through how tiny microchannels became the focus of my research path for more than 10 years, leading to the concept of laser-assisted drug delivery, one of the most important personal changes of my career. I’d like to share how I’ve lately come to think about how doctors and researchers have the potential to be major channels for change ourselves — as medical authorities, leaders at our organizations, teachers to our residents, and thanks to our proximity to patients. In the talk, I’ll cover how I’m trying to do just that back in Copenhagen.  

Please share highlights of your background that have contributed to who you are today.
I have been privileged to have two amazing mentors, my Danish mentor Hans Christian Wulf, who invented daylight PDT, and my international mentor, Rox Anderson, who opened his lab to me to pursue laser-assisted drug delivery. Working together with these gifted guys has changed my career. I was a foreigner, a deeply rooted Danish physician who suddenly found my way to the international scene. I’ve learned that sharing a deep motivation to innovate can lead to lifelong friendships. 

How has your involvement in ASLMS contributed to your career? Why should young researchers become involved with ASLMS?
ASLMS is the world’s largest professional organization dedicated specifically to pioneering in lasers and energy-based devices. Thanks to ASLMS, I’ve had access to a wealth of brilliant, international minds. These colleagues have been a major source of inspiration and cooperation through the years as we steadily get better together. For me personally, being involved in ASLMS and LSM, the great red journal, means having the entire world as my research playground. I never get tired of discussing new ideas with colleagues in this community.  

Tell us something our members may not know about you. 
I’m the first college graduate in my family, born and raised by the most loving and caring parents, who taught me that change rarely occurs spontaneously; it comes from yourself. I took the most influential decision of my life, when I was 21 years old, marrying my husband Carsten, who made it possible for me to combine family life with having an international academic career. My best career advice is “choose the right partner to live your life with.”

Congratulations on receiving the Ellet H. Drake Memorial Award this year. Please comment on receiving the award and what it means to you.
It’s an honor to be recognized by an award honoring Ellet Drake, MD, a cardiologist from the Midwest (where people are so nice), who collaborated with Leon Goldman, MD, a surgeon, to form the ASLMS. The collaborative and multidisciplinary nature of this collaboration should remind us of all the great things that happen when people with different backgrounds get together. Getting this award means a great deal to me as it came from my peers and friends and recognizes our collaborative contributions to the field of laser medicine.

You will be delivering your award presentation, Straight Talk: For Me, What It’s All About, at the Awards Brunch, on Sunday, April 16. Can you share some highlights of your talk?
I’m briefly going to discuss some of the mentors that got me interested in laser medicine and the projects we worked on. Mostly, my journey is about the people I have met along the way and the fun we have together solving, or attempting to solve, challenges in laser medicine, the joy of co-discovery, and the fun we have together.

Please share highlights of your background that have contributed to who you are today.
I come from a family of over-achieving underdogs. My father’s family came to the U.S. in the early 1920’s to escape persecution in Belarus and Poland, while my mother escaped from behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary when she was just a teenager. My happy, suburban childhood contrasts quite sharply from where my parents came from. One thing they taught me, is that somewhere inside me is the ability to do things I never believed I could do – “Just look at your grandfather’s business he started without a high school education” - like start a business. 

How has your involvement in ASLMS contributed to your career? Why should young researchers or clinicians become involved with ASLMS?
The ASLMS is where it all started for me. I was working with physicists and laser surgeons outside of the field of dermatology for many years, and in fact, it was lasers that directed me to dermatology, not the other way around. When I first attended ASLMS, I met dermatologists who introduced me to the wonders of using lasers to treat skin, and other clinicians and scientists using lasers for basic science and other clinical applications. I was first introduced to dermatologic lasers by Gary Lask while he was at Thomas Jefferson University and performed histologic studies on laser-treated skin for Coherent medical in the lab of Jouni Uitto, MD, PhD, a world-expert in extracellular matrix. The ASLMS introduced me to other scientists in academia, private practice, and industry and enabled me to collaborate and learn from others who shared my fascination and wonder of lasers.

Tell us something our members may not know about you. 
I used to have bright red hair, am ½ Hungarian, am originally a Washingtonian, and sleep beside 2 rescue dogs, one of which is a Great Dane.