The University of California at Riverside honored prominent alumni at a ceremony in the theatre,
for 2006; receiving the award for Outstanding Young Alumnus was Dr. Ravish Patwardhan, a neurosurgeon (B.S., Biomedical Sciences, graduating class of 1993). He was recognized among an elite field, which included nobel prize winner Richard Schrock (B.S. Chemistry, graduating class of 1967). While at U.C. Riverside, Dr. Ravish Patwardhan majored in Biomedical Sciences and Electrical Engineering; he was accepted to U.C.L.A. Medical School in an early decision, as part of the Biomedical Sciences program. As a consequence, he was not able to finish his senior year in Electrical Engineering, but finished with a B.S. degree cum laude in Biomedical Sciences.

While at U.C.L.A. Medical School, Dr. Ravish Patwardhan did extensive research with Dr. Neil
Martin, Professor and prominent neurosurgeon. He claimed to have been inspired by Dr. Martin’s skills, endurance, and integrity – at the time, Dr. Martin was attempting to summit Mt. Everest. In addition, Dr. Patwardhan did research with Erik Behnke, B.S.E., and worked towards innovating a novel microdialysis/microelectrode device in conjunction with an engineering student working also at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

After graduating medical school, Dr. Ravish Patwardhan began a residency at U.A.B., and did his
Chief Resident year at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He did a fellowship in Epilepsy and Functional Neurosurgery at U.C.L.A. also, in the effort of bringing this new technology to help patients in northwest Louisiana. After serving as Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery, where he created much of the medical school curriculum and taught residents.

In remarks upon accepting the award, Dr. Ravish Patwardhan thanked his mentors who were
present, including Dr. Gary Scott, his freshman Chemistry professor, who gave him the painful advice: “If you are having trouble with chemistry word problems, do a lot of them… then they become easy.” That advice, he claims, has gone a long way. Also, he recognized Drs. Amea Walker and Richard Luben, for their advice. He particularly recognized Mr. Aaron Bushong, President of Kappa Alpha fraternity, of which Dr. Patwardhan was an active member at the time.
Finally, as the video of his time at U.C. Riverside notes, Dr. Patwardhan stated he owed a lot to the cross country team, which meant for some brutal uphill struggles at 7:00 A.M. in the morning before class. Running in that elite field in the NCAA National Championships, made him realize that the only way to deal with challenging situations was to go through them.

Finally, Dr. Ravish Patwardhan thanked all of his teachers and education at U.C. Riverside, which became evident “when you operate on a brain tumor the father of a family of young children, with his wife and kids counting on you to return that person to his family without problems.”