Dr. William A. Zamboni, a microsurgeon at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas whose research has dramatically advanced the success of surgical reattachment of limbs, will receive the first Rudolf W. Gunnerman Silver State Award for Excellence in Science and Technology. Lt. Governor Lorraine Hunt will formally present the award to Zamboni at the Desert Research Institute in Reno on February 12.
The $5,000 annual award, administered by DRI, recognizes scientific achievement and technology development in Nevada to showcase the state as a strong supporter in key areas of innovation, DRI President Stephen G. Wells said. Dr. Rudolf Gunnerman, chairman of Clean Fuels Technology, Inc. of Reno, established the award last year to recognize Nevadans whose achievements clearly satisfied a societal need either through fundamental science or its application.
Zamboni's widely followed research shows that putting reattachment surgery patients into hyperbaric chambers will cause the blood vessels, skin, muscle and nerve tissues to regenerate or recover more quickly and completely. The technique appears to reduce or reverse chemical changes that inhibit recovery occurring in the body following severe trauma.
Hyperbaric chambers contain 100% oxygen under higher than normal air pressure and are typically used to help divers recover from nitrogen narcosis-"the bends"- caused by surfacing from deep dives too rapidly. The highly concentrated oxygen, a natural antibiotic, is also used to fight infection in burn patients.
Zamboni received his undergraduate degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, and his medical degree at Nevada's School of Medicine, where he is now chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery and director of the Microsurgery and Hyperbaric Research Laboratory in Las Vegas. He is a Reno area native and graduate of Reno's Bishop Manogue High School.
Following medical school, Zamboni took his residency in general surgery and in reconstructive and plastic surgery at Southern Illinois University, eventually becoming chief resident. Upon joining the Nevada School of Medicine's faculty in Las Vegas in 1994, Zamboni started the state's first program using microsurgical techniques and replantation surgery for reattaching severed limbs. In May, 1998 he performed the state's first full arm reattachment in a delicate, five-hour operation on a man injured in a dune buggy accident.
The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society recently gave Zamboni its international 2000 Paul Bert Award for outstanding research contributions in the field of hyperbaric physiology, named in honor of a French physiologist who is considered the "Father of Pressure Physiology."
Gunnerman, the award's namesake, is an environmental inventor and scientist who came to the United States from Germany in 1945. His firm, Clean Fuels Technology, Inc. of Reno, is actively involved in promoting the use of A-55 Clean Fuels, a water-bearing emulsified fuel that reduces emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulates.
Gunnerman holds seven U.S. patents and over 70 international patents in the area of energy-related sciences and has devoted a significant portion of his life to studying the effects of pollution and the technological responses to these effects.