Ganesh S. Palapattu, MD
Buffalo, NY
Since receiving my initial Young Investigator Grant from the NSAUA I have received a PCF Competitive Research Award, Edwin Beer Award, DoD Physician Training Award and Astellas/AUA Foundation Rising Star Award. I am currently re-submitting an RO1.
As clinicians we can help one patient at a time. Through research we have the potential to help generations. If we are not the ones making the discoveries that change the future medicine, who will?
Here is a snippet of an anecdote that occurred to me during fellowship some years ago: The second person who has profoundly impacted me in this regard is Donald S. Coffey, PhD of Johns Hopkins. Dr. Coffey's own intellectual ‘Horatio Alger' story is legend and his impact on science, particularly prostate cancer, the world over unquestioned. He has that wonderful quality about him that makes people in his midst feel like they can do anything, even surgeons. I was once in a small group with him discussing the future of science when someone asked him why at his age (over 70) he was still so active in research. His reply was, “Well, I may not cure cancer” and then he looked right at me and with a twinkle in his eye said, ‘but, he might.” That is enough inspiration to last a lifetime.