Media contact: Adam Pope
Photo Credit: Children's of AlabamaColin Martin, M.D., associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been selected for the 2019-2020 James IV Association of Surgeons Traveling Fellowship program. The association and the fellowship, generally considered one of the field’s more prestigious honors, boast a more than 50-year history of supporting international communication and collaboration among academic surgeons.
Martin serves as the surgical director of the UAB and Children’s of Alabama Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation, a program co-director for the Department of Surgery’s Pre-College Research Internship for Students from Minority Backgrounds, and an associate professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery. He has served on several institutional and national committees within the academic surgery community and has received a number of other international travel awards.
“I am very thankful to everyone who supported my application for this award,” Martin said. “It is truly a privilege to represent UAB and American surgery abroad.”
James IV Travelers function as both ambassadors representing their home countries and conduits to share their knowledge with their peers. The fellowship seeks to support young academic surgeons whose careers stand to benefit from global exposure and will allow Martin to travel internationally for a period of up to four weeks within a two-year period with a flat stipend of $15,000.
“The James IV Association is a very prestigious and globally recognized society, and this fellowship is a great opportunity for young surgeons,” said UAB Department of Surgery Chair Herbert Chen, M.D. “Dr. Martin will no doubt be an ideal representative for both UAB and American surgery as a whole.”
The James IV Association of Surgeons sponsors visiting fellowship opportunities for young surgeons from and to the association’s member countries. These traveling fellowships promote the exchange of surgical knowledge and foster the kinds of professional relationships that have defined those who founded the association and those who have since joined them.
“I look forward to exchanging ideas and building collaborations with experts within the global surgical community,” Martin said. “In addition, I am equally excited to share this travel experience with my family.”
Two years ago, UAB Transplant Division Director Jayme Locke, M.D., was also selected as a James IV Association of Surgeons Traveler. Locke is the director of the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute, the UAB Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program, and the UAB Transplant Analytics, Informatics and Quality research lab.
“It is a great honor for our department to have multiple faculty named James IV Travelers and really speaks to the quality of our team at UAB and their commitment to the field of academic surgery,” Chen said.