SA is pleased to announce that Zhiyi Zuo, M.D., Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2005 ASA Presidential Scholar Award. Dr. Zuo is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Neuroscience (secondary appointment) and the Department of Neurological Surgery (secondary appointment) at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. He received his M.D. and Master of Anesthesiology from Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China, and a Ph.D. in Receptor Physiology, Pharmacology and Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Dr. Zuo then trained as a general surgery resident, anesthesiology resident and anesthesiology chief resident at Sun Yat-Sen and completed his anesthesiology residency at the University of Virginia.

Zhiyi Zuo, M.D.

As a clinician-investigator at the University of Virginia, Dr. Zuo has focused on three major research projects in his laboratory: 1) regulation of glutamate transporters; 2) preconditioning-induced neuroprotection; and 3) selective gene silencing for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. His work on the anesthetic effects on glutamate transport resulted in a starter grant from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) in 2001, which eventually led to an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2003. In 2004 Dr. Zuo received a second R01 grant for his work on neuroprotection after isoflurane preconditioning and identifying the intracellular signaling molecules that mediate neuroprotection.

Dr. Zuo’s interests and activities extend far beyond his own research, though. He is a highly respected clinical teacher, having recruited more than 13 postdoctoral fellows and research associates to his laboratory. He interacts closely with residents during their neuroanesthesia rotations in particular, but Dr. Zuo also keeps his time and his laboratory open for undergraduates, medical students and residents. Several of the research trainees he has worked with are now faculty members at other universities.

On top of his research and educational endeavors, Dr. Zuo continues to provide care to patients for anesthesia in the general operating room. He is one of a handful of physicians on call for major intracranial vascular procedures and is often responsible for anesthesia care during difficult, high-impact neurological surgeries.

In a span of five years since joining the faculty at the University of Virginia, Dr. Zuo has been first or senior author of 22 papers that represent significant scientific contributions to his field. He has a growing reputation as a lecturer and increasingly serves as a referee to journals such as Anesthesiology and Anesthesia & Analgesia. Among his honors and awards are a third-place prize in the 1997 Residents’ Research Essay Contest sponsored by ASA and a FAER New Investigator Award for 2001-02.

The ASA Presidential Scholar Award was inaugurated in 2003 “to stimulate scientific advancement by recognizing colleagues who dedicate their formative careers to research.” Due to his already formidable reputation and body of work, his outstanding teaching abilities and the certainty that his accomplishments will only grow in the future, Dr. Zuo is a model ASA Presidential Scholar.

The award will be presented during the Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture, which will take place from 11:15 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. on Monday, October 24, in the Conference Auditorium at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Zuo will present his research at 1 p.m. during the Celebration of Research, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday in La Nouvelle Orleans BC, also at the convention center.

Roger W. Litwiller, M.D., is Staff Anesthesiologist, Carilion Medical Center, Roanoke, Virginia.