Association for Academic Surgery

What Association for Academic Surgery does

The Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) is a 501(c)(3) professional medical society founded in 1966 and headquartered in Encino, California. It serves over 4,000 academic surgeons, with a core mission focused on early-career faculty and trainees pursuing research-based careers in academic surgery. The organization is governed by an elected Executive Council and staffed by a small team (1–10 employees) under Executive Director Gina Hardiman, with a wholly-owned charitable arm, the AAS Foundation (AASF), funding research awards and fellowships.

The AAS's core product surface is built around four revenue and engagement pillars: (1) membership tiers spanning Medical Student ($25/yr), Candidate and Military ($50/yr), Senior and Affiliate ($150/yr), International Tiers 1–4 (variable), and Active ($400/yr, which includes a Journal of Surgical Research subscription); (2) content and educational programming including The Academic Surgeon Blog, an extensive webinar library (research methods, diversity/inclusion, COVID-19 series), the Assistant Professor Playbook video series, and Fall Courses (Fundamentals of Surgical Research and Early Career Development) co-located with the ACS Clinical Congress; (3) the Academic Surgical Congress, an annual joint meeting with the Society of University Surgeons that draws approximately 1,800 abstracts; and (4) research funding via AAS/AASF awards — four $30,000 Trainee Research Fellowships, $50,000 Faculty Research Awards (Roslyn and Henri Ford), and a $20,000 Geoffrey Dunn Palliative Care award, plus multiple travel and visiting professorships. Distribution is direct-to-member via online application, a job board ($350/list, $299 for institutional members), and active social presence across X, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky.

The business model is a non-dues-augmented subscription society: primary recurring revenue from tiered annual membership, supplemented by job board listings, Fall Courses and Congress registration/exhibits, Foundation donations, and journal-related income. The technology footprint is non-proprietary — standard web platforms for membership management, blog, webinar, and event registration — with no AI, app, API, or integration products. The organization is not an acquisition or investment target in the conventional sense; it is a self-sustaining nonprofit professional association with stable, distributed membership economics.

Name

Association for Academic Surgery

Legal name

Association for Academic Surgery

Website

https://aasurg.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1966

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Association for Academic Surgery is a 501(c)(3) professional medical society founded in 1966 that serves over 4,000 academic surgeons, residents, and medical students through membership tiers, an annual congress, research awards, and career development programming.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Medical Association / Surgical Society

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (54)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) & Teaching Hospitals (HLAFAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Academic & Scientific Conferences (MPAGAGAD), Medical, Clinical & Biomedical Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAB)

Keywords

• Academic surgery society
• Professional medical membership
• Surgical research grants
• Surgical education programs
• Annual surgical congress

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership dues collected from surgeons at various career stages. Active members pay $400/year which includes Journal of Surgical Research subscription. Candidate members pay $50/year, Medical Students pay $25/year, Senior and Affiliate members pay $150/year, Active Military members pay $50/year. International members are categorized into Tiers 1-4 with varying rates based on World Bank/IMF economic factors.

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Association for Academic Surgery is a 501(c)(3) professional medical society that serves more than 4,000 members by offering tiered membership subscriptions, an annual Academic Surgical Congress, AAS Fall Courses, peer-reviewed publication access (Journal of Surgical Research), an online job board, and grants/awards such as Trainee Research Fellowships ($30,000) and Faculty Research Awards ($50,000). It advances research-based academic surgery through programs, networking, mentorship, and funding targeted at young academic surgeons within 12 years of their first faculty appointment.

Product overview

The Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) is a professional membership organization founded in 1966 serving academic surgeons. The AAS offers a portfolio of products and services centered on professional development, research funding, networking, and education for its over 4,000 members. Core offerings include the annual Academic Surgical Congress (ASC) conference, the AAS Fall Courses educational program, the Journal of Surgical Research publication, the Academic Surgeon Blog content platform, and various webinars. The organization provides substantial research funding through multiple award programs including the Trainee Research Fellowship Awards ($30,000), Henri Ford Junior Faculty Research Award ($50,000), Joel J. Roslyn Faculty Research Award ($50,000), and Geoffrey Dunn Palliative Care Award ($20,000). Additional services include a job board, membership directory, diversity travel awards, and career development resources such as the Assistant Professor Playbook video series. The AAS Foundation (AASF) serves as the 501(c)(3) charitable arm supporting young surgeon scientists.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• AAS Membership Subscriptions Tiered annual membership subscriptions for surgeons at various career stages (Active $400/year, Candidate $50/year, Medical Student $25/year, Senior $150/year, Affiliate $150/year, Active Military $50/year, International Tiers 1-4 variable), providing access to journals, meetings, networking, awards, and governance participation for individual academic surgeons.
• Academic Surgical Congress (ASC)
• AAS Fall Courses Annual September educational program held before the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress, comprising the Fundamentals of Surgical Research Course and the Early Career Development Course, with exhibit and sponsorship opportunities.
• Journal of Surgical Research
• AAS/AASF Trainee Research Fellowship Awards Four $30,000 research fellowship awards for surgical residents and fellows across Global Surgery, Basic Science/Translational, Clinical Outcomes/Health Services, and Education Research categories, funded via the AAS Foundation.
• Henri Ford Junior Faculty Research Award $50,000 research award for junior faculty members from underrepresented backgrounds in academic surgery, funded through the AASF.
• Joel J. Roslyn Faculty Research Award $50,000 research award for early-career faculty members of the AAS within five years of completing surgical training, administered through the AASF.
• Geoffrey Dunn MD Research Award in Surgical Palliative Care $20,000 research award for full-time faculty focused on clinical or basic science research in surgical palliative care.
• AAS Job Board Online job board listing surgical positions at member institutions at $350 per 30-day listing ($299 for institutional members), connecting academic surgery professionals with career opportunities.
• AAS Webinars Recurring and recorded webinar series covering research methodology, career development, diversity and inclusion, the COVID-19 Town Hall series, and specialty-focused sessions, free to AAS members.
• Assistant Professor Playbook A series of short video modules providing strategies for a successful career in academic surgery, covering promotion, mentorship, funding, and teaching for junior faculty.
• Association for Academic Surgery Foundation (AASF) Wholly-owned 501(c)(3) foundation arm of the AAS that channels charitable giving and grants to support young surgeon scientists through research awards, fellowships, and Visiting Professorships.

Quantifiable outcome

• 4 research fellowship awards of $30,000 each for trainees in Global Surgery, Basic Science/Translational, Clinical Outcomes/Health Services, and Education Research categories
• +2 more outcomes

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Society of University Surgeons: The Society of University Surgeons is the most direct peer, co-hosting the Academic Surgical Congress with AAS and serving an overlapping membership of academic surgeons advancing in their faculty careers.
• Association of Women Surgeons: The Association of Women Surgeons is a direct peer serving a specific demographic within academic surgery, overlapping in audience and often co-programming events and awards with AAS.

Broad incumbents

• American College of Surgeons: The American College of Surgeons is the dominant broad surgical professional society with a much larger membership across all career stages; AAS Fall Courses are held alongside the ACS Clinical Congress, reflecting their closely intertwined but broader-incumbent positioning.
• Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES): SAGES is a broader surgical society focused on gastrointestinal and endoscopic surgery that also serves academic surgeons and competes for the same conference and membership mindshare.
• Society of Surgical Oncology: The Society of Surgical Oncology is a subspecialty surgical society with academic membership, overlapping with AAS in the academic surgical community and competing for abstract submissions and event attendance.
• American Surgical Association: The American Surgical Association is a prestigious, broad surgical society serving senior academic surgeons; AAS Senior members often progress into ASA membership, making it an adjacent peer in the academic surgery career pipeline.
• American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST): AAST is a subspecialty society for trauma surgery with a strong academic and research orientation, providing an analogous professional society model for a specific surgical subspecialty.
• American Medical Association (AMA): The AMA is the broad professional association for U.S. physicians, providing an analogous national membership organization model with educational programming, publications (JAMA), and policy advocacy that AAS parallels at a specialty level.

Emerging players

• Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT): SSAT is a subspecialty surgical society focused on alimentary tract surgery with overlapping academic surgeon membership and similar member development programs.

Others

• Elsevier (Journal of Surgical Research publisher): Elsevier publishes the Journal of Surgical Research under arrangement with AAS, making it an enabling ecosystem partner rather than a peer but directly relevant to the society's journal revenue and distribution.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/AcademicSurgery
• Facebookfacebook.com/AcademicSurgery
• Instagraminstagram.com/academic_surgery
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/association-for-academic-surgery-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Association for Academic Surgery