Dr. Robert Rutherford Receives Jacobson Award

Robert B. Rutherford, MD, FACS, FRCS, professor emeritus of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, received the 2nd annual Julius H. Jacobson II, MD. Award for Physician Excellence given by the Vascular Disease Foundation.

The award is named for Julius H. Jacobson II, MD, considered to be the preeminent pioneer in microsurgery. In early 2004, Dr. Jacobson seeded the award via a gift to the Vascular Disease Foundation.

The award was presented to Dr. Rutherford by Dr. Alain Drooz, President of VDF and Dr. Peter Gloviczki, VDF past- President, on June 2, 2006, at the Annual Vascular Meeting in Philadelphia.

In addition to his work as an educator and editor, Dr. Rutherford is best known for his efforts in developing uniform standards for reporting practices while serving as chairman of the Committee on Reporting Standards of the Society for Vascular Surgery and the American Association for Vascular Surgery (SVS/AAVS). He has published over 400 articles and book chapters and six textbooks, including the well-known text, Vascular Surgery, 6th ed. (W.B. Saunders, 2005), in addition to editing the quarterly review, "Seminars in Vascular Surgery," for almost two decades and co-editing the "Journal of Vascular Surgery" from 1996-2003.

Dr. Rutherford has been president of four professional societies, notably the Western Vascular Society and the American Association for Vascular Surgery (formerly ISCVS). He has served as a director of the American Board of Surgery and was chairman of the Vascular Surgery Committee of that board. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Vascular Disease Foundation. Dr. Rutherford co-chaired the Transatlantic Consensus on Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease (TASC) and, in 2005, was the recipient of the first Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Society of Vascular Surgery.