Scoliosis Research Society Announces 2026 Walter P. Blount Humanitarian Award Recipient

The Scoliosis Research Society’s Walter P. Blount Award is given to an individual who has provided outstanding service for those with spinal deformities, through their generous actions out of a sense of service to larger social and professional goals.

The 2026 Blount Award was presented oduring the 61st Annual Meeting at Sydney, Australia to honor SRS member Saumyajit Basu, MD.

Dr. Basu completed his medical school in 1992 at Calcutta Medical and subsequently finished his postgraduate degree and training in Orthopedics, at the University of Calcutta in 1997.

He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, FRCSEd in 1998, then completed his Spinal Fellowship at the Center for Spinal Studies, Queens Medical Center, Nottingham.

Presently he is working as the Departmental Head and Lead Spine Surgeon at Kothari Medical Center, Kolkata -- one of the busiest spine centers in India with 2,000 surgeries annually and 10,000 clinical patients.

Though his main areas of interest are Spinal Deformities and Cervical Spine, he has performed over 15,000 spinal surgeries in his 24 years of practice.

He has received multiple research awards and grants, in the last few years on a wide range of topics like Functional MRI in back pain, Microbiome in Cervical Disc, Genetics of AIS and is currently involved in setting up a multicentric database on non-operative treatment of ASD. He has, to his credit, about 300 podium presentations in regional/national/international meetings with nearly 100 indexed journal publications and book chapters.

Dr. Basu is the founder of a not-for-profit organization, Spine Research Foundation and is the Managing Trustee funding patients with complex spinal deformities who desperately need but cannot afford surgical treatment. To date he has performed nearly 500 pro-bono surgeries and is committed to double the number of these patients in the next few years.

Read more about Dr. Basu in the Final Program: Dr. Basu biography.

The Scoliosis Research Society is a non-profit, professional organization, made up of physicians and allied health personnel. Our primary focus is on providing continuing medical education for health care professionals and on funding/supporting research in spinal deformities. Founded in 1966, SRS has gained recognition as the world's premier spine deformity society. Please visit www.srs.org for further information. Also follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.