LSU Health New Orleans Professor Receives Prestigious Honor

Fred Rodriguez, Jr., MD, MASCP, Emma Moss Professor of Pathology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has received the 2017 Ward Burdick Award for Distinguished Service to Pathology. The award, presented by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), honors Fellows who have made a significant contribution to pathology through sustained service to the profession and to ASCP. The award is in commemoration of Ward Burdick, MD, who played a major role in the organization of the Society in 1922 and served as the Secretary of the Society until March, 1928.

Dr. Rodriguez has served as president of the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences, National Director of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Director of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in New Orleans.

“I am extremely honored and humbled to receive the award that commemorates Dr. Burdick, who played a major role in the organization of the Society in 1922,” Rodriguez says. “This recognition from the ASCP will only enhance my desire and energy to continue to serve the ASCP and the profession of pathology.”

A past ASCP President, Dr. Rodriguez has served on numerous committees and commissions for ASCP during his long and distinguished career. Dr. Rodriguez was elected to several leadership positions for the Society and on the Board of Directors, culminating with his Presidency in 2005-2006. One of the Board’s notable accomplishments during Dr. Rodriguez’s tenure was the establishment of the Mastership designation for the Society. From 1986 until 2000, Dr. Rodriguez was on the ASCP Board of Registry, serving as a Governor and on various committees of the Board, and as Chair and member of the Immunology Examination Committee. Dr. Rodriguez also served and continues to serve the laboratory profession as a workshop presenter and invited lecturer.

He has previously been awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the ASCP Board of Certification; the ASCP Israel Davidsohn Award for Outstanding Service; and the ASCP Mastership.

Founded in 1922 in Chicago, ASCP is a medical professional society with more than 100,000 member board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologists, pathology residents and fellows, laboratory professionals, and students. ASCP provides excellence in education, certification, and advocacy on behalf of patients, pathologists, and laboratory professionals.