RCSI will confer 531 healthcare professionals with postgraduate awards at a conferring ceremony taking place in the College this evening. The awards being conferred include fellowships, memberships and diplomas in surgery; radiology; dentistry; and sports and exercise medicine.

At this evening’s ceremony, the College will confer Honorary Fellowships on three distinguished surgeons. The recipients are Dr Barbara Lee Bass, President of the American College of Surgeons and John F. and Carolyn Bookout Distinguished Chair of Surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas, USA; Professor Frank A. Frizelle, Head of Department of Surgery at the University of Otago, New Zealand; and Professor Gerard M. O’Donoghue, Department of Otolaryngology and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK.

The Honorary Fellowship of RCSI is the highest distinction the College bestows, recognising outstanding achievement in surgery and in other areas. 

Mr Kenneth Mealy, President of RCSI said: “For our candidates being conferred, today is a very important milestone as this ceremony marks either the successful completion or the next vital step in their training programmes. I congratulate all of the candidates and wish them the very best in their future careers in the specialty that they have chosen. It is a pleasure to celebrate their commitment to their training and dedication to their patients and their profession.”

Dr Barbara Lee Bass, President of the American College of Surgeons will deliver an address at the ceremony entitled ‘The Strength of “We”’. 

“One year to the day from the publication of RCSI’s PROGRESS report on gender equality in surgery, it is especially fitting that our candidates and guests will have the privilege of hearing an address from the President of the American College of Surgeons, Dr Barbara Bass, who has been an inspiring role-model in surgery throughout her career. I congratulate today’s three Honorary Fellowship recipients Drs Bass, Frizelle & O’Donoghue who have been influential leaders in surgical practice both locally and globally and are therefore most worthy recipients of the highest Honour this College has to offer,"Mr Mealy added.

In surgery, the awards being conferred today include Fellowships of RCSI in General Surgery; Neurosurgery; Ophthalmology; Otolaryngology; Plastic Surgery; Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery; Urology; Vascular Surgery; and Fellowships Ad Eundem. Memberships of RCSI will be awarded including Memberships in ENT and Ophthalmology. Diplomas in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, will also be awarded.

Fellowships of the Faculty of Radiologists will be awarded in Radiodiagnosis. In Dentistry, Fellowships will be awarded in Operative and Restorative Dentistry; Oral Surgery; Oral Surgery with Oral Medicine; Orthodontics; Fellowships Ad Eundem; and a Fellowship in General Dental Surgery. Faculty of Dentistry Diplomas of Primary Care Dentistry and Memberships in General Dental Surgery will also be awarded. The Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine will award Fellowships by Election and Fellowships Ad Eundem.  Memberships of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine will also be conferred.

RCSI is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, founded in 1784, with its headquarters in Dublin. It is focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. It is ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2018) and its research is ranked first in Ireland for citations. It is a signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter.