About Us

Mission

Welcome to the American Association of South Asian Neurosurgeons.  The core purpose of our organization is to serve as a vehicle for collaboration between neurosurgeons based in South Asia with those based in the United States. In addition, we hope to serve as a networking and professional society.  The organization hopes to encourage the exchange of knowledge and technical skills among South Asian neurosurgeons across these world borders.

This, we feel, will inevitably allow delivery of better care for patients with neurosurgical diseases.

We currently have two biannual meetings.  One is typically during the American Association of Neurological Surgeons – AANS (www.aans.org) and the other during the Congress of Neurological Surgeons – CNS (www.cns.org).  The meetings are typically held on a Monday evening at 5:00 PM.  The meetings will be emailed to the membership, will be posted on the web site (www.aasan.us), and will also make it in the program book for the particular mentioned annual meeting.  Following the meetings, we generally have a social gathering and dinner.

The attendance of the meetings has been increasing each year.  Please come and become a member; all are invited.

History of the organization

AASAN was formed on Oct. 26, 1987, at Tandoor Restaurant inBaltimore,Maryland.  The officers elected at that meeting were: Dr. Chander M. Kohli as President; Dr. Hari Chopra as

Vice President; and Dr. Arnold Menezes as the Secretary and Treasurer.

The organization was formally incorporated in December 1989.  At that time, the Board of  Trustees consisted of Dr. Chander M. Kohli, Dr. Laligam Sekhar, and Dr. Arnold Menezes.

The next elections were held in 1993.  The officers appointed at that time were: Dr. Chander M. Kohli as President; Dr. Arnold Menezes as President Elect; Dr. Laligam Sekhar as Secretary and Treasurer.  Two years later, Dr. Arnold Menezes was promoted as President, Dr. Laligam Sekhar was made President-Elect, and Dr. Anand Garg was elected as the Secretary and Treasurer.  In 1995, there were 21 life Members and 11 Annual Members.

Since 2006, the organization has taken a more active role in collaborating with colleagues from India, and in this regard, has begun an ambassadorship program (please see section devoted to the program for further details), allowing residents from India as well as the US to partake in overseas training experiences. More recently, AASAN helped to organize the largest overseas gathering of neurosurgeons from India during the Congress of Neurological Surgeons meeting in New Orleans in 2009. This was an especially memorable event as the guest of honor during this meeting was the former president of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam. During December 2010, a large contingent of US-based neurosurgeons visited India for a combined conference organized by the CNS and the Neurological Society of India (NSI). This was an unprecedented opportunity to exchange neurosurgical skills and knowledge. As we look to the future, we aim to continue to support endeavors that enhance learning between neurosurgeons from India and US-based neurosurgeons.

Our database has identified a number of neurosurgeons from South Asian descent practicing neurosurgery in the United States.  We are also proud to observe, that nearly every neurosurgical training program in the United States has at least one resident from South Asian descent.  We urge you to become a life member and participate in AASAN and attend our meetings.