UT Surgeon Frank Moody Earns Lifetime Achievement Award

Frank G. Moody, M.D.

Frank G. Moody, M.D., professor and former chairman of the Department of Surgery at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, is the recipient of the Society of University Surgeons' 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award recognizes individuals who have had a sustained career in academic surgery with contributions to the surgical sciences. The society seeks to acknowledge these individuals to establish role models for younger generations of surgeons to emulate their contributions to the science of surgery and their commitment to the Society of University Surgeons.

"It has been a privilege to have been in a small way a contributor to the rapid growth of digestive surgery during the past 50 years," Moody said during his acceptance speech at the third annual Academic Surgical Congress in Huntington Beach, Calif. "We are on the threshold of preventing the severe complications of many diseases that in the future, if treated early by minimally invasive techniques will greatly reduce the human and financial burden of their progression."

David W. Mercer, M.D., professor and Jack H. Mayfield, M.D. Chair in Surgery at the UT Medical School at Houston and past president of the Society of University Surgeons, along with Richard Andrassy, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery, presented the award to Moody.

"Dr. Moody is internationally known for his lifetime work on the pancreas, biliary tract and obesity," said Andrassy, the Denton A. Cooley, M.D., Chair in Surgery and Jack H. Mayfield, M.D. Distinguished University Chair. "He is one of only four people recognized by the Academic Surgical Congress to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been a leader in Surgery as a researcher, clinician and educator for over 50 years and this award by the academic surgical community is a tribute to the respect he has earned by not only his peers , but by the new generation of young, academic leaders.

Moody's academic career began in 1963 in the Department of Surgery at the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. In 1966, he joined the faculty at the University of Alabama Medical Center, Birmingham, and from 1971-1982 he was chairman of surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He led the Department of Surgery at the UT Medical School from 1982 to 1994 and remains active on the faculty at the medical school at The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

"My career may be a little bit different from others," Moody said. "I am a clinical surgeon and educator who believes in the importance of science. I've had the opportunity to specialize in surgery of the gastrointestinal tract, conduct research and pass those skills on to young surgeons in the United States and other countries."

Moody said he takes great pride in training surgeons who go on to be leaders in their field. In addition to those he has taught, Moody said, two of his most rewarding accomplishments at the UT Medical School have been the development of a surgical weight-loss program in 1982 and the establishment of the Trauma Research Center in the mid-1980s.

Moody earned his medical degree in 1956 at Cornell University Medical College. He completed his surgical residency in 1963 at New York Hospital and did a two-year cardiovascular research fellowship at the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco.

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