Page 70 - IFSO-History-Book-Digital-File

15 - Antonio Torres 2011-2012 Spain

Professor Torres trained in both general/digestive surgery and
thoracic surgery in Madrid and Málaga before becoming
Professor of Surgery at Complutense University of Madrid, and
Chief of the General and Digestive Surgery Service at Hospital
Clínico San Carlos. He served as president of the Spanish Bariatric
Society, SECO, from 2007-2011, and as IFSO’s European
Representative to the General Council before his IFSO presidency.
He later chaired the IFSO Board of Trustees from 2015-2019 and
organized and presided over the 2019 IFSO World Congress in
Madrid. At his home department, Torres played a leading role,
alongside colleague Andrés Sánchez-Pernaute, in developing the
single anastomosis duodeno-ileal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy
(SADI-S), a hypoabsorptive procedure designed to cause fewer
nutritional deficiencies than the standard laparoscopic duodenal
switch.

16 - Pradeep Chowbey 2012-2013 India

Professor Chowbey trained in laparoscopic technique in
Singapore in 1989 and went on to perform the first laparoscopic
cholecystectomy in North India. In the mid-1990s, he established
one of the first dedicated departments of minimal access surgery
in the Asian subcontinent, at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi.
Widely known as “the surgeon of the Dalai Lama,” Chowbey also
operated on Indian presidents and senior officials as Honorary
Surgeon to the President of India and the Indian Armed Forces.
Chowbey served as President of the Asia-Pacific Chapter of IFSO
and of the Obesity & Metabolic Surgery Society of India. He
organized and presided over the 2012 IFSO World Congress in
New Delhi, inaugurated by the Dalai Lama, where he assumed the
office of President of IFSO 2012–2013. During his presidency, he
launched international campaigns urging global health ministries
to recognize obesity as a metabolic disease. In recognition of his
leadership, he received the IFSO-APC Visionary Leadership
Award, and in 2002, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s
highest civilian honors.

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