Prof. Vito Pansadoro (Rome, IT) is the 2024 winner of the John Wickham Award, receiving it from Prof. Wiklund on behalf of ERUS at its 21st Meeting in Bordeaux.
Prof. Wiklund hailed the accomplishments of Prof. Pansadoro: “Prof. Pansadoro has developed minimally invasive surgery in Italy for decades, and was a pioneer in endoscopic and laparascopic urology. He was extremely active across Europe, picking up and developing surgical techniques, ultimately becoming one of the first to work with robots in Italy and indeed Europe. In recent years he has been closely involved in oncological trials.”
“Vito is also the father of the important ‘Challenges in Laparoscopy’ series of meetings, and he has been part of the EAU family for decades. For all these reasons, the committee decided to award this year’s Wickham Award to Prof. Pansadoro.”
ERUS Chair Prof. Alberto Breda referred to Prof. Pansadoro as “a legend, a tremendous surgeon and a tremendous human being. At 85 he is still operating, including a live case at this very meeting. He is one of the fathers of urology in Italy and completely deserves this honour.”
When receiving the award, Prof. Pansadoro reflected on the progress he had seen from general surgeons performing open urological surgery, and thanked the many teachers he had learned from over the decades. He also gave special attention to the “real visionary, forward-thinking” Mr. John Wickham who gave his name to this award.
“I am proud that I was able to give to my coworkers my students and colleagues all I have learned from my teachers,” said Prof. Pansadoro. “What we give doesn’t always come back. But what we give is who we are.”
John Wickham Award
Prof. Pansadoro joins previous Wickham Award winners Prof. Prokar Dasgupta (2023) Dr. Richard Gaston (2022), Prof. Alexandre Mottrie (2021) Prof. Walter Artibani (2019) and Prof. Claude Abbou (2018). The award is given on an annual basis, honouring surgeons who have made a significant contribution to robotic surgery. The prize consists of a medal featuring an engraving of John Wickham’s likeness. No winner was announced in 2020 due to the virtual nature of ERUS20.
The award is named after John Wickham (1927-2017), a true pioneer of robotic surgery. Together with Prof. Brian Davies of Imperial College, Wickham developed and engineered the first robotic device in urological surgery named the PROBOT. Wickham used the PROBOT to perform the very first robotic procedure on the prostate in London in April of 1991. He coined the phrase “minimally-invasive surgery” to describe the future of the field. Mr. Wickham passed away in late 2017, at the age of 89.
From left to right: Profs. Breda, Gaston, Pansadoro and Wiklund.
