George Berci Lifetime Achievement Award

WASHINGTON DC: THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS AWARD GIVEN BY THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN GASTROINTESTINAL AND ENDOSCOPIC SURGEONS (SAGES) TO PROFESSOR JACQUES MARESCAUX

Last April 14, 2010, during the World Congress of Surgery that was held in Washington DC, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) gave Professor Marescaux his most prestigious Award for the “accomplishment of his surgical masterpiece”.

This Award truly represents an outstanding recognition in the field of minimal access surgery since this uppermost distinction had been given only to 4 surgeons in 30 years’ time.

During the ceremony, Professors Bruce Schirmer and Lee Swanström highly and eloquently praised the international achievements and performances of the IRCAD training centre that they designated as the “Temple of research and surgical knowledge transmission without borders”.

professor MarescauxProfessor Marescaux, extremely moved as he received a long “standing ovation”, liked to recall that if he had dedicated his whole life to surgery, surgery gave him everything in return, and notably keeping his dream alive.

Above all, Professor Marescaux insisted on the importance of humanistic values, which guide the choice of the profession and without which the most sophisticated technologies seem rather poor.

His words for conclusion underlined his vision of the non-invasive approach of all treatment: “the greatest success of surgery will begin when it is no longer necessary”.

Valérie Pécresse, minister of Higher Education and Research, expresses her warmest congratulations to Professor Jacques Marescaux. The minister pays tribute to Professor Marescaux’s outstanding intuition. Indeed, he successfully managed to extenstively see and develop all the potentialities of computer sciences applied to minimal access surgery.

Read the press release

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COVID19: IRCAD sanitary measures & health pass

Please note that the IRCAD administrative board and staff are closely monitoring the evolving COVID-19 situation, in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations in France. The health, safety, and well-being of our participants, experts and staff are our top priority!
Despite the current context, the IRCAD stands firmly by your side to help you acquire knowledge and skills. Come and join us !

We would like to draw your attention that the « Vaccine Pass » is now mandatory in France since end of January 2022 and replaces the former « Health Pass » to access places that are open to the public, such as cinemas, museums, cafés and restaurants, hotels as well as the IRCAD Institute which welcomes participants in the framework of its courses and seminars. Thus, a PCR test without vaccination is no longer sufficient to take part in our courses.

The vaccine pass includes a proof of the following (one of the 3 items is sufficient):

  • The vaccination certificate, proving that persons have a complete vaccination (as of January 15, 2022, all persons aged 18 and over must receive a booster dose no more than 7 months after their last injection or Covid infection to receive a valid vaccination pass. As of February 15, 2022, the time limits for keeping the pass will be reduced, you will have to do your booster dose 4 months and no longer 7 months after your 2nd dose to have a complete vaccine schedule and maintain a valid vaccine pass)
  • The result of a positive RT-PCR or antigenic test attesting to the recovery of Covid, more than 11 days and less than 4 months
  • The certificate of contraindication to vaccination

Further information about the new vaccine pass can be found at :

We very much hope to be able to count on your kind understanding of those rules which have been set by the French Government and which our Institute is required to apply