Dr. Ali Ahmady is Lab Director at University Fertility Center, Torrance, California; and Scientific Director at Reproductive Health and Gynecology, Beverly Hills; California. He holds board certified lab director (HCLD) from American Board of Bioanalysis and certificate of qualification as Lab Director in Andrology and Endocrinology from New York State Department of Health. Dr. Ahmady has more than 19 years experience in clinical embryology. He has established a number of IVF research/clinical labs throughout the world including North America. His biography is selected for inclusion in the 2008 issue of "Who's Who in America".

Dr. Ahmady received his Ph.D. in embryology from National University of Singapore under the supervision of Professor SC Ng, a pioneer in micromanipulation and the scientist credited for producing the first SUZI (sub zonal insemination, technique prior to ICSI) live birth in humans. Dr. Ahmady's research is focused on male infertility. He did a systematic study of fertilizing ability of dead sperm (at cellular and molecular level especially DNA damage). He developed the Single Sperm Curling test for selecting a viable sperm in ICSI procedure. He has also developed the hamster-ICSI assay for evaluating the fertilizing ability of sperm. Dr. Ahmady produced the first live birth in the mouse using ICSI. Dr. Ahmady is an author of a manual for IVF, co-author of a chapter in the atlas of embryology, and has published more than 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts. His work on DNA-damage has been cited by several leading scientists in the field.

Dr. Mohamed Ali Bedaiwy received his M.D. degree from the University of Assiut, Egypt in 1993. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology (1997) and Fellowship in Gynecology (1999) from Assiut University Hospital, Egypt. He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Research in Human Reproduction, Infertility and Sexual Function, Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 1999-2001 and in the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Cleveland Clinic from 2001-2003. He received his Ph.D. degree (2003) from the Department of Gynecology, University of Assiut, Egypt and is a lecturer of Gynecology there. Dr. Bedaiwy was a Teaching Scholar in the Division of Reproductive Sciences, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 2003 to 2006.

Dr. Bedaiwy received the Society of Reproductive Surgeons Award (SRS) in 2001 for his research and the Australian Fertility Society Travel Award from the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in 2003. He also received the Trainee Merit Award by the National Institute of Health and International Society of Andrology in 2001. He received the Serono In-Training Award by the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society (PCSR) in 2002 and the Best Video Award from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) at the 2001, 2002, and 2003 meetings.

Dr. Bedaiwy is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology, and Middle East Fertility Society. His special interests are in the areas of reproductive surgery/endocrinology and include fertility preservation in cancer patients, ovarian tissue cryopreservation, optimizing IVF outcome, pathophysiology of endometriosis, and clinical and surgical treatment of female infertility. Dr Bedaiwy has published more than 34 original articles, 64 abstracts, and 6 book chapters in the area of reproductive medicine. He has 8 educational videos in the area of reproductive surgery and infertility; 3 of them are part of the permanent video library of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Alumni Award for Excellence in Gynecology Research
ASRM Meeting, Washington, DC, October 14, 2007

Dr. Catherine Combelles is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department of Middlebury College, Vermont. She completed her post graduate degree in 1995 from the University of Hawaii and received her PhD degree from the Tufts University in 2002. She was a Research Staff at the Harvard Medical School from 2003-04 and a Senior Embryologist at the Brigham's and Women's Hospital from 2002-04. Dr. Combelles is a cell biologist by training and her broad interests lie in oocyte quality and the optimization of culture systems. Most of her work has been on in vitro oocyte maturation in mouse and human oocytes. She is now working on oxidative stress in the ovary and its potential influences on oocyte maturation and oocyte quality at large. She has published over 20 original articles and reviews and is a reviewer for a number of journals which includes Human Reproduction, Biology of Reproduction and Biomaterials.

Certificate of Recognition
ASRM Meeting, Washington DC, October 14, 2007

Dr. Dubey received his doctorate degree from the Department of Reproductive Physiology, Cancer Research Institute, University of Bombay, India, in 1978. He joined the Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England in 1980 as a post-doctoral fellow where he obtained training in neuroendocrinology and in 1982 joined the Department of Physiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA for post-doctoral training in neuroendocrinology. In 1986, Dr. Dubey moved to Baltimore, MD where he was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland. In 1988 he moved to Brooklyn, New York to become the Director and Research Assistant Professor of the Reproductive Endocrine/Andrology Laboratories of the Department or Obstetrics & Gynecology, State University of New York. He moved to Boston in 1989 to become the Director of the Reproductive Biology Laboratory at New England Memorial Fertility Center. He was appointed as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of ART Labs in 1992 at Tufts University School of Medicine and promoted to Associate Professor in 1995. Dr. Dubey moved to Washington, D.C. in 1997 where he became Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University Medical Center, Director of IVF/Andrology Lab, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility and was promoted to full Professor in 2002. He has authored over 35 peer reviewed manuscripts and review articles, over 39 abstracts and many presentations at various scientific and professional meetings.

Dr. Donald P. Evenson is a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at South Dakota State University and President and Director of SCSA® Diagnostics, Inc. a private corporation that is solely dedicated to using the SCSA® test to determine the relationship between infertility and DNA fragmentation in sperm. Dr. Evenson invented and developed the SCSA® test and has over 20 years experience measuring thousands of animal and human sperm samples. Readers Digest highlighted the SCSA® test as one of the Medical Breakthroughs for 2004.
 
Dr. Evenson received his B.A. degree in Biology-Chemistry at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD and his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Colorado, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Boulder, CO.
 
In 1983, Dr. Evenson accepted a position as Professor of Biochemistry at South Dakota State University. During his tenure at SDSU, Dr. Evenson has supervised graduate students, published over a hundred articles in peer reviewed journals, participated in extensive collaborations with international laboratories, been invited to speak around the world at professional meetings and has received several NIH grants for his research work.

Prof. Sikka received his doctorate degree from the Department of Pharmacology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India, in 1978. After his initial research fellowship at AIIMS, New Delhi in Reproductive Biology, he joined Department of Biochemistry at University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles and obtained excellent training in protein-lipid interactions in cell membranes. In 1982, Dr. Sikka moved to University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), as Director of Urology Research Laboratory at Harbor-UCLA medical Center and actively pursued his research interests in reproductive biology, erectile dysfunction, and environmental reproductive-toxicology issues. Dr. Sikka joined Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans in Dec.1988 as Assistant Professor of Urology. He obtained his board certification as High-complexity Clinical Lab Director (HCLD) in 1995 and directs CLIA approved Andrology clinical laboratories at Tulane. His current research interests focus on understanding the biology and prevention of many aging related Urological disorders including infertility, erectile dysfunction, prostate diseases. He has authored over 130 peer reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and review articles, and over 200 abstracts and many presentations at various National and International scientific and professional meetings. He has been Principal Investigator or Co-investigator of many federal and privately funded research grants. He has served on the editorial boards of many journals and participated as grant reviewer of various study panels. He was Tulane University Senate member from 2002-2005. He has set-up a unique standardized quality controlled semen-analysis training program at Tulane that caters to the need of many pharmaceutical companies for their multi-center clinical trials to evaluate reproductive toxicology of their products.

Amy Slugg Moore is Manager of Medical Editing Services at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, which is part of the Department of Scientific Publications. In her current position, she edits papers written by CCF researchers who would like editorial help before submitting their work for publication to a peer-reviewed journal. In addition, she edits and writes for the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine and teaches classes on scientific writing. Before joining CCF, she was an editor at Medical Economics Co. and at Slack Inc. - both publishers of medical information in New Jersey. Ms. Moore received her bachelor's degree in journalism from Ohio University in 1992. Amy is, also, the Content Editor of the Cleveland Clinic's Reproductive Research Program website since September 2002.

Research Recognition Award