Prof. Hari S. Asopa, MS, FRCS, FACS, FICS, DSc
Presently: Director & Head of Surgery,
Asopa Hospital and Research Centre, Agra, India.
Professor Emeritus, S. N. Medical Colege & Hospital, Agra. India
Formerly–Professor & Head of Surgery, M. L. B. Medical College, Jhansi, India.
National President, Association of Surgeons of India: 1996
Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons, England: 1996–97

Prof. Hari S. Asopa was born on July 7, 1934. He graduated in 1957 from S. N. Medical College, Agra which is one of the oldest Medical Colleges of India. He stood 1st in final MBBS examination at Agra University which, then, also included the Medical Colleges or Indore and Gwalior and was awarded several medals including the Chancellors medal.

He also did postgraduation in General Surgery from the same University in 1964 followed by Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and England in the same year. After serving as a surgical registrar in Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester for a year, Prof. Asopa joined his alma mater as a lecturer in Surgery. He then rose to the post of Professor and then moved to MLB Medical college, Jhansi, as Head of Surgery. Since 1989 he serving as Emeritus Professor of Surgery at S. N. Medical College, Agra.

Prof. Asopa invented a one stage operation for hypospadias using transverse prepucial skin tube which was published in 1971 and accepted rapidly by surgeons world over. He further devised two more operations popularly known as ASOPA II (vascularised double island) published in 1984 and “ASOPA-90 VERSION”. These have found a place in several international text and reference books. “Neourethra” made by these technique is also used in difficult and long urethral strictures and in congenital short urethra. He invented an operation of stricture urethra – ‘the dorsal free graft urethroplasty for urethral strictures using ventral sagittal urethrotomy approach’. [Urology 58(5) 2001]

An avid surgeon with a restless mind, Prof. Asopa invented another surgery for the management of the pancreatic stump in 2002 – ‘Pancreatico-jejunostomy with invagination of spatulated pancreatic stamp into a jejunal pouch’. [American Journal of Surgery 183(2002) 138–141]

Prof. Asopa has a keen interest in propagating the surgical skills, and takes active part in academic activities conducted throughout India and abroad. He has been invited to conduct workshops all over the world. He has given live operative demonstration of closed circuit television on his operative procedure in over 50 prestigious institutions under the aeges of Indian Society for Paediatric Urology, Asian Society for Paediatric Urology and several General Surgery and Plastic Surgery Societies.

During is long and illustrious carrier Prof. Asopa has been conferred upon Fellowships of several prominent academic bodies in India and abroad. Some of these are Academy of Medical Sciences, India: National Science Academy, India; College of Surgeons, Srilanka; International College of Surgeons as well as the American College of Surgeons. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Agra, also conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Science in 1995. He is an Active Charter member of Society of Genito–Urinary Reconstructive Surgeons of USA. He has delivered many prestigious oration s which include: Dr. Ardishir S. Irani Memorial oration, Hari Om Ashram Prerit S Rangachari Award, S. R. Talwalker oration in surgery, “Col. Pandalai Oration”, General Amir Chand Oration, Orations of both, Indian and Asian Societies for Paediatric Urology as well as the Urology President’s Gold Medal and the Golden Jubilee Oration Gold medal of Delhi State Chapter of Association of Surgeons of India. He was awarded the 1991-B. C. Roy National Award as an eminent Medical Teacher and the 1996, both, given by the then President of India.

Prof. Asopa is visiting Professor to most of the universities in India and abroad, including Department of Urology Upstate University of New York and Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.

Above all, Professor Asopa is a soft spoken gem of a man with very pleasant manners. Author of this tribute feels privileged to have learnt so much from his visits to All India Institute of Medical Sciences while conducting ‘live operative workshops’ and delivering orations under the aeges of Indian and Asian societies for Paediatric Urology. One of the most natable quotes of Prof. Asopa was his response to an exclamation from a be-dazzled delegate: ‘Sir, how is it that you are such a fast surgeon’; Prof. Asopa replied in his inimitable style: ‘I am fast because I operate slowly’!

The editors of Progress in Paediatric Urology feel privileged to dedicate this volume of Prof. Hari Shankar Asopa.

A tribute by:

Prof. M. Bajpai, MS, MCh, PhD, National Board,
Fulbright Scholar, USA & Commonwealth Fellow UK.
Professor
Department of Paediatric Surgery
All India Institute of Medical Sciences
New Delhi 110029, India

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