As part of their weekly meetings, members of the Excalibur National Honor Society for Science were treated to a guest speaker. Dr. Albert Sam, MD ’85 visited with the students to talk about the opportunities for the future in the science industry and specifically the medical field. Dr. Sam also talked about his time as a Crusader and stressed the importance of taking school seriously as plans for the future start to develop.
Dr. Sam is an Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery and the Chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the Tulane Heart and Vascular Institute. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. After graduating from the Duke University School of Medicine, he completed a general surgery residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). At UIC Dr. Sam received a Master of Science degree in Surgery from the UIC graduate college where his thesis directly resulted in a new drug use patent for the treatment of sepsis.
After completing a fellowship in vascular and endovascular Surgery at the Feinberg Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, he joined the Vascular Specialty Center in 2003 where he served as the Chief of Vascular Surgery at the Baton Rouge General Hospital from 2007-2012. In addition to becoming one of the first physicians nationally to be board certified in general surgery, vascular surgery, and endovascular medicine; while there, he served as principle investigator for several national and international vascular clinical trials including the largest and only NIH sponsored stroke prevention trial (CREST) – whose results have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In 2010 he received an executive Master of Medical Management degree from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine – department of Health Systems Management.
