2026 ASLMS 45th Annual Conference Recordings (Non-CME) - Awards Presentations

Dr. Bhatia is a board-certified and fellowship trained dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon and is an Associate Professor of Clinical Dermatology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. He specializes in laser and cosmetic surgery, skin cancer therapy, Mohs and reconstructive surgery, and skin resurfacing procedures including scar reduction and revision. He has published extensively in journals and textbooks, contributed to the advancement of techniques in facial reconstruction, scar revision, fat reduction, and the use of purified neurotoxins and fillers, and is a sought- after teacher, speaker, and instructor both nationally and internationally.

Professional Societies: Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology; Fellow of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery; Fellow and Vice-President of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery; Fellow of the American College of Mohs Surgery; Member of American Medical Association.

Mathew M. Avram, MD, JD is the Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Dermatology Laser & Cosmetic Center. He also serves as Director of Laser, Cosmetic, and Dermatologic Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Faculty Director for Laser and Cosmetic Training in the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, and co-director of the MGH/Wellman Laser & Cosmetic Fellowship, where he has 32 trained cosmetic dermatology fellows to date.

Dr. Avram is the past president of the ASDS, where he previously served on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer. Dr. Avram also served as President of the ASLMS from 2017-2018 and was on the Board of Directors for 10 years. He was the 2015 recipient of the ASLMS Annual Leon Goldman Award for excellence in research, patient care, and education, and he was the 2016 recipient of the ASLMS Annual Ellet Drake Award for innovation in laser surgery. He was honored as the 2023 recipient of the Sturge Weber Foundation Reunion of Champions.

Dr. Avram has co-authored or edited seven textbooks. He co-authored the First and Second Editions of A Color Atlas of Cosmetic Dermatology, published by McGraw-Hill (which has been translated into five languages), as well as its “iPhone app.” He served as textbook co-editor of Lasers and Lights, published by Elsevier; Laser & Light Source Treatments for the Skin, published by Jaypee; Fat Removal, published by Wiley; and Procedural Dermatology, published by McGraw-Hill. He has 89 peer-reviewed publications in journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, JAMA Dermatology, Lasers in Surgery & Medicine, and Dermatologic Surgery, as well as several other medical journals. He has served as special guest editor of Lasers in Surgery & Medicine in 2009, 2014, and 2015.

Currently, he is an associate editor of the Journal of Cosmetic and Laser Therapy, an assistant editor of Dermatologic Surgery, and serves on the Editorial Boards of Lasers in Surgery & Medicine, Dermatologic Surgery, Archives of Dermatology Research, and Lasers in Medical Science. He has also served on the Surgical Advisory Board of JAMA Dermatology.

Dr. Avram has chaired 29 national meetings and has delivered over 800 invited lectures at national and international meetings on four continents. Dr. Avram served as the Program Co-Chair of the 2010 ASLMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, and has served as co-chair for an annual laser and energy-based teaching session for the FDA in Silver Spring, Maryland, for three years. He has served as Chair of the ASLMS Annual Meeting Cutaneous Abstract session five times. He also holds two US patents.

For multiple consecutive years, Boston Magazine has selected Dr. Avram as one of Boston’s Top Dermatologists. He was selected by Newsweek magazine as one of the top 10 Cosmetic Dermatologists in America. Dr. Avram has been a frequent guest on the Dr. Oz show, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX, and is a regularly quoted medical expert in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and numerous other media publications.

Tina S. Alster, MD is the founding director of the Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery and is a clinical professor of dermatology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC as well as consulting associate of dermatology at Duke University. She received her B.S. and M.D. degrees with highest honors from Duke University and completed her dermatology residency at Yale University.

Dr. Alster is a world-recognized leader in dermatologic laser surgery and is credited with having written the first textbook on cosmetic laser surgery. She has since published hundreds of articles and 7 additional textbooks on the subject.

Dr. Alster has held and maintains leadership and board positions in numerous professional and national organizations including the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS), American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery (ASLMS), Women’s Dermatologic Society (WDS), among others. She has served as a consultant to several skin care and device companies, including Lancôme and La Mer. Her commitment to teaching and mentoring others is evident in the hundreds of physicians she has trained in her career as well as her establishment of scholarship endowments for women pursuing careers in medicine at Duke University and, more recently, a cosmetic dermatology resident education fund at Yale University.

Dr. Alster has received numerous accolades by her peers including the prestigious ASLMS Leon Goldman Lectureship Award (2001), American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Presidential Citation Award (2017), Women’s Dermatologic Society (WDS) Mentorship (2009) and Legacy (2014) Awards, the ASLMS Leadership, Mentorship & Public Advocacy for Women in Medical Science Award (2018), and the Dermatology Foundation Practitioner of the Year and the ASDS Samuel Stegman Award for Distinguished Service Awards in 2019. She has been a Castle Connolly Top Doctor in America for each of the past 28 years. In addition to serving as an expert on TV and radio, she has been acknowledged in America’s Top Doctors, Town & Country’s Best Cosmetic Surgeons, America’s Elite 1000, Allure’s Influencer of the Year, Elle Genius Awards and Washingtonian’s Best Doctors and is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 1 percent of physicians in dermatology in US News & World Report.

Dr. Christopher B. Zachary, MBBS, FRCP, is a dermatologist specializing in cutaneous oncology and reconstruction, cosmetic and laser surgery, and is Professor and Chair Emeritus, department of dermatology, University of California-Irvine. Dr. Zachary is often featured as an invited speaker at national and international symposia and is sought out by the media (e.g. NY Times, CNN, and Today Show) for his candid comments. His ability to critique has drawn some ire, but so far his humor and English accent have saved him from his detractors. His interest in lasers has led to considerable industry supported research in optimal systems for cutaneous laser surgery. He has been the program director for the Mohs College and the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery Annual Conferences. He is a past president of the Association of Academic Dermatologic Surgeons. He is an educational innovator having founded the internet based e-Learning site www.MDlive.net. He has written and edited his share of papers and books.

Dr. Zachary was born in Yorkshire, England, and educated at Ratcliffe College, Leicester, United Kingdom. Following his medical school education at the Royal Free Hospital, University of London, he subsequently trained in internal medicine and dermatology. During his time at the Institute of Dermatology, Guys and St. Thomas' Hospitals, he gained an interest in dermatologic surgery. His formal surgical education was received at the department of dermatology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1986 to set up the first Mohs and laser surgery unit in London. In 1988 he was recruited to the department of dermatology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, as director of the Cutaneous Surgery and Laser Center where he spent the next 9 years. In 1997, he sold his boat and lakeside cabin, and moved West, to the University of California, San Francisco, where he spent 9 splendid years with his friend and colleague Roy Grekin, M.D. as clinical professor and co-director of the Cutaneous Surgery and Laser Center, UCSF, San Francisco. In 2005, he accepted the position as Professor and Chair, department of dermatology at the University of California-Irvine where he currently resides. In 2020 he stepped down from the Chair position, and remains full time in the department. This and his family are his main current projects.

A recently retired nurse practitioner for the Laser & Skin Surgery Center of Northern California, Rebecca earned her nurse practitioner/physician assistant certificate at the University of California, Davis. She is involved in peer and public education and speaks at professional organizations. Rebecca is a fellow member of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, Dermatologic Nurses Association, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and is a recipient of ASLMS 2006 and 2019 Excellence in Nursing/Allied Health Award. She served as Section Chair for the 2009-2010, 2019-2020 ASLMS Nursing/Allied Health conference. Rebecca recently served a three-year term on the Board of Directors as a representative of Nursing/Allied Health section of ASLMS. Areas of interest include a variety of laser treatments, skin cancer monitoring, acne treatments and the use of neurotoxins.