BUSM Urologist Named President of American Urological Association

Richard Babayan, MD, professor and chair of Urology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and chief of the department of urology at Boston Medical Center (BMC), has been elected president of the American Urological Association (AUA). He is the first Boston urologist to be elected national AUA president since 1988.

This three-part role begins May 2015 when Babayan will be named president elect of the association. From May 2016-17, he will assume the presidency and preside over the AUA Annual Meeting that will be held in Boston. Finally, he will serve as past president from May 2017-18.

Babayan has previously served in both local and national urological associations. He was the president of the Massachusetts Association of Practicing Urologists from 2012-14 and the New England Section representative to the AUA Board of Directors from 2005-09. In 2011, the AUA Leadership Program and Board of Directors honored him with a Distinguished Service Award.

Babayan has been actively involved in minimally invasive therapies within the field of urology. His clinical interests include benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer, urologic oncology and endourology. He performed the first robot assisted radical prostatectomy in Boston and is currently one of three urologic surgeons at BMC using the daVinci Robot for minimally invasive procedures.

After earning his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine, Babayan completed his surgical training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a urology residency at the former University Hospital, now BMC. Babayan also served as an AUA Research Scholar working in the field of hyperthermia at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and BUSM. He joined the BUSM faculty in 1980 and has been chairman of Urology since 2000.