BU School of Medicine Urologist Appointed President of New England Fertility Society 2013

Robert D. Oates, MD, FACS, vice-chairman of urology and director of both the urology Fellowship and Residency training programs at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has been elected President of the New England Fertility Society (NEFS). The announcement was made at the NEFS quarterly meeting in Cambridge, Mass. Oates, a urologist at Boston Medical Center (BMC), is the first urologist to hold this position.

Oates will begin his three-year term as President-Elect in 2012, learning about the responsibilities of the position and the society before assuming his role as President in 2013. As President, he will organize the NEFS educational programs and serve as the academic chair for the 2013 annual meeting. He will conclude his final term as Immediate Past-President in 2014.

Internationally recognized for his clinical and laboratory research on the genetic basis of male reproductive failure, Oates’ research includes the first peer-reviewed manuscript demonstrating a link between the condition of congenital bilateral absence of a sperm carrying duct, which causes infertility, and Cystic Fibrosis. He has presented at national and international meetings, authored numerous papers and has been instrumental in male reproductive surgical research.

In addition to his contributions to men’s health, Oates has been honored as one of Castle and Connolly’s Best Doctors in America for the last several years, the American Urological Association Bruce Stewart Memorial Lecturer at the 2009 ASRM meeting and awarded the (SMRU) Prize Paper in 2002 for his research on the clinical aspects of a Y chromosomal AZFc microdeletion. Oates also holds the title of President of the Society of Male Reproduction and Urology and is the Scientific Program Chair for the ASRM 2012 Annual Meeting.

Oates completed his clinical fellowship in Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in 1988, his residency at BMC in 1987, and received his medical degree from BUSM in 1982.