Mount Sinai’s Raja Flores, MD, Honored with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award at NYU 2019 CAS Baccalaureate Ceremony
Raja M. Flores, MD, Founding Chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System, was honored by New York University with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award, which recognizes his accomplishments and services to NYU as both a student and alumnus. The award was presented on Tuesday, May 21 at the 2019 College of Arts & Science Baccalaureate Ceremonies at Radio City Music Hall.
Dr. Flores attended NYU from 1984 to 1988, receiving a full scholarship through the Higher Education Opportunity Program. “I am honored to receive this award and grateful for the opportunities I received. The scholarship helped me achieve my dreams and I’m happy to give back,” he says. Now as an alumnus, he has been deeply involved in helping students. On a professional level, he provides guidance to medical students and opportunities to shadow him in the operating room, and as benefactor, scholarships that enable them to pursue their dreams. Dr. Flores is also an active member of the NYU Arts and Science Board of Overseers.
“I was very humbled to receive this award because I’m the one who feels like I owe so much to NYU for giving me the opportunity to live out my dreams” says Dr. Flores, who is also the Steven and Ann Ames Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Flores is a world-renowned thoracic surgeon known for his technical skill and life-long work on lung and esophageal cancer, mesothelioma and asbestos-related diseases. He established the VATS lobectomy, a minimally invasive approach using three small incisions, as the gold standard in the surgical treatment of lung cancer. He has one of the largest VATS lobectomy experiences in the world and has published and presented this data at national and international meetings. His research has produced more than 200 publications and he was the Principal Investigator of a $4.8 million RO1 grant, to study the effect of asbestos contamination in the town of Libby, Montana.
After Dr. Flores received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at NYU, he went on to complete a master’s degree in biostatistics from Columbia University. He then attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he received his medical degree in 1992. He then spent five years at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, completing a General Surgery Internship and Residency. From there, he pursued a Thoracic Oncology Clinical Research Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana Faber Cancer Institute/CALGB in Boston, and his Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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