Pittsburgh, November 13, 2025 -- PGY-4 resident Joseph Garcia, MD, took home the best resident presentation award at the 20th Anniversary Stuart Rowe Society Lectureship and Research Day held November 12 at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery.
Dr. Garcia's presentation, "Profiling Glioma Subtypes Through Metabolomic Analyses," was one of 10 lectures presented by department residents during the day honoring Stuart Niles Rowe, MD, widely considered the founding figure of neurosurgery training in the city of Pittsburgh. For winning the award, Dr. Mallela received a trip to attend the 2026 American Academy of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting scheduled for Ojai, California next September.
Chief Resident Prateek Agarwal, MD, and PGY-7 resident Hansen Deng, MD, each received runner-up honors for their presentations. Dr. Agarwal talked on “Non-β-Lactam Antibiotic Use, β-Lactam Allergy, and Surgical Site Infections" while Dr. Deng spoke on "Advancing Personalized TBI Care in Pittsburgh.” Each received $500 for their awards.
The awards were chosen and presented by the lectureship’s honored guest, Edward Chang, MD, professor and chair of neurosurgery at the University of California, San Francisco, at a special evening reception and dinner held in his honor at Pittsburgh's prestigious Duquesne Club. As honored guest lecturer, Dr. Chang also presented a talk on "Discovering the Source Code of the Human Mind."
The Stuart Rowe Society Lectureship and Resident Research Day was established in 2005 as a tribute to Dr. Rowe who believed that neurosurgery training should not only teach exceptional technique, but also the critical clinical decision-making skills necessary to succeed. Niles was a strong advocate of thorough research and literature review in residency training. He preached the underlying need for independent research as a means for broadening clinical knowledge.
