Lipsett to receive AMWA’s Women in Science Award

Pamela A. Lipsett, M.D., M.H.P.E., the first female professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has been named the 2012 recipient of the American Medical Women’s Association’s Women in Science Award.

The Woman in Science Award is presented to a female physician who has made exceptional contributions to medical science, especially in women’s health, through her basic and/or clinical research, publications and leadership in her field. Among the criteria are evidence of top-quality scientific research, extensive publication record and a high national leadership profile.

After a childhood surgery to correct a club foot, and years spent in a wheelchair and leg braces after a bout with polio, Lipsett became determined to become a surgeon herself. She received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, going on to become only the third woman to complete a general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins.

In 2003, she became the first female professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins, and now also holds the Warfield M. Firor Chair of Surgery and appointments in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

Lipsett concentrates on studying, preventing and treating infections in intensive care units. She has also made major contributions in fields ranging from biochemistry and clinical pharmacology, to the economics of the intensive care unit to resident duty hours.

Lipsett is the immediate past-president of the 15,000 member of Society of Critical Care Medicine (the largest critical care organization in the world) and president of the Surgical Infection Society.