Udwadia: unanimous choice

"You could have knocked me over with a feather after the contents of your letter regarding the SAGES George Berci Lifetime Achievement Award sank in!” wrote eminent surgeon Dr Tehemton E. Udwadia to Dr David Rattner, chairman of the awards committee of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) when the latter notified him that he had been "unanimously chosen” for the Award.

Dr Tehemton Udwadia: excellence in endoscopy

"Reading the list of awardees, I do feel like a village bumpkin being invited to the White House! Receiving this Award is very much a reflection of the affection and goodwill… my friends and well-wishers in SAGES have for me, rather than any intrinsic merit,” wrote Udwadia, adding, "I hasten to reply accepting the Award, just as I had done accepting the Centenary Karl Stortz Award in 2002, before the awards committee changes its mind!”
The Award, which was instituted in 2001, "is given to a surgeon for a lifetime contribution as an innovator in the field of endoscopic surgery which may be scientific, educational, research, clinical and/or technological,” notes Rattner’s letter. The presentation will be at the annual meeting of SAGES in Salt Lake City, Utah. USA, at the Convention Center on April 2, 2014.
Admitting that "SAGES has been a source of strength and inspiration to me from 1990… As founder president of the Indian Association of Gastrointestinal Endo-Surgeons, I have endeavored to mirror as best as I could, the SAGES philosophy and approach to endoscopic surgery, which I now continue to do as chairman of the Center of Excellence for Minimal Access Surgery Training,” Udwadia mentioned in his missive. "To me this Award has extra special significance because it bears the name of George Berci, my role model since the early 1970s when I was working on diagnostic laparoscopy. He has been a guiding inspiration to me as he has been to innumerable surgeons for his creative thinking, ethics, humility and boundless energy,” the surgeon acknowledged.