Started in 2016, the Surinder K. Puri Memorial Lecture series is held annually at Winship Cancer Instute of Emory University. The series was established and endowed by Mridula Puri, MD (Emory Medical Residency, 79'), in loving memory of her husband.
Video presentations of past Puri Lectures
The 9th annual Surinder K. Puri Memorial Lecture held on February 16, 2024 featured Neha Mehta-Shah, MD, MSCI, Associate Professor in the Division of Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine, presenting on "Taking Steps Towards Progress in T-cell Lymphoma."
The 8th annual Surinder K. Puri Memorial Lecture held on February 10, 2023 featured S. Vincent Rajkumar, MD, Edward W. & Betty Knight Scripps Professor of Medicine, at Mayo Clinic, presenting "Paradigm Changes in Myeloma."
The 7th annual Surinder K. Puri Memorial Lecture held virtually on February 11, 2022 featured Ann S. Lacasce, MD, MMSc, Associate Professor of Medicine and Chair of Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program at Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presenting "Lymphoma in Adolescent and Young Adult Patients."
The 6th annual Surinder K. Puri Memorial Lecture held virtually on February 5th, 2021 featured Kerry J. Savage, MD, MSc, Professor, Medical Oncology at University of British Columbia, presenting "Peripheral T-Cell Lymphomas: Recent Advances and Future Directions."
The 5th annual Surinder K. Puri Memorial Lecture held at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University on February 7th, 2020 featured Lisa Rimsza, MD, Professor, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic Arizona, presenting "Mantle Cell Lymphoma: A Quest for Biologically Defined Diagnostics and Prognostics."
The 4th annual Puri Lecture held on February 8th, 2019 at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University featured Stephen Ansell, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine , Department of Hematology, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, presenting "Modulating the immune response in Lymphoma."
The third annual Puri Lecture held on February 23rd, 2018 at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University featured Brad Khal, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Oncology Division, Medical Oncology Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, presenting "Mantle Cell Lymphoma: The State of the State."
The second annual Puri Lecture held on February 3rd, 2017 at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University featured Michael E. Williams, MD, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at University of Virginia, presenting "Mantle Cell Lymphoma: 25 Years of Progress."
The inaugural Puri Lecture presented on February 5th, 2016 featured Dr. Ash Alizadeh of Stanford University describing the use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to detect and track cancer.
About Surinder K. Puri
In 1965, Surinder K. Puri emigrated from India to United States to pursue graduate work in engineering at Michigan State University. After earning his degree, he spent nearly 50 years working on some of country's largest transit infrastructure megaprojects with the firm of Parsons, Brinkerhoff & Tudor. Puri was instrumental in shaping Atlanta's cityscape and infrastructure starting in 1975 when he began as a top engineer on design and construction of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) system.
Though trained as an engineer, Puri was a true renaissance man who also had the spirit of a poet and sensibility of an artist. He loved building bridges, literally and metaphorically, between places, people, ideas and disciplines. Extraordinarily modest, Puri was beloved and admired by many people for his kindness, elegance, and humor and he loved bringing people together over one of his legendary home cooked meals.
In 2004, Puri was diagnosed with stage IV Mantle Cell Lymphoma. He considered himself fortunate to have the best cutting-edge care through his medical team at Winship Cancer Institute. With that care and fortitude he not only survived, but thrived for next ten years until his relapse in 2014. Puri profoundly benefitted from great advances in research and clinical care for cancers of B-Cell malignancy variety.
With this lectureship, Puri's family hopes to accelerate further significant advances in this area, and to extend those benefits to as many others as possible by bringing in top researchers and clinicians to share their work and foster opportunities for multi-institutional collaboration.