International Speakers

Dr. Mody is the medical director of the cytopathology laboratory at Houston’s Methodist Hospital and was the Cytopathology Fellowship program director till June 2017. She is professor of Pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and adjunct professor at Texas A&M University. She was also the medical director of Bioreference/GenPath cytology lab in Texas for 12 years till July 2022

Dr. Mody is a past president of American Society of Cytopathology (ASC) in 2007-08 and has been a member of the executive board of the ASC. She has received the Papanicolaou Award, the President's Award and Excellence in Education award from that society.

Her participation with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) has also been extensive, including chairing the cytopathology resource committee and Anatomic Pathology cluster and other activities, for which she has received the Lansky Award for her leadership in cytopathology in 2002, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and the Jean and Gene Herbek Humanitarian award in 2019. She also received the Harlan J Spjut award of the Houston Society of Clinical Pathologists and several years of residents and fellows teaching awards. In January 2019 she received the John J Andujar citation of merit award from Texas Society of Pathologists. On Feb 1 2019 she was awarded the first Shobha Grover Oration medal/award of the Indian Academy of Cytologists, Maharashtra chapter at its Annual meeting in Mumbai. In 2024 she received the Dr Tao Educator award from the Papanicolaou society of Cytopathology at the USCAP meeting.

Dr. Mody is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology with subspecialty certification in cytopathology.

She finished two terms as the editor in chief of the Journal of The American Society of Cytopathology (2017-2022) and is on the editorial boards of several cytology and pathology journals and was on the cytopathology question writing committee of the American Board of Pathology (2011-2017). She chaired the Scientific program Committee of the American Society of Cytopathology from 2012-2014 which is responsible for the three annual scientific meetings. She was also the invited Speaker for the International Academy of Cytology Tutorials from 2015-2019 and has lectured on topics of cancer diagnosis by cytology and small biopsies and HPV testing. She co directs the biennial Cytopathology and small biopsy update in the Texas medical center which is held at Houston Methodist in Feb or March.

Dr. Mody has over 125 peer reviewed publications and over 250 presentations, abstracts and invited lectures at loco regional, national and international level. In March 2014, she published a comprehensive 800 page cytopathology text book: Diagnostic Pathology Cytopathology by Amirsys (now Elsevier), which, in its 2nd edition (2018) was selected by the British Medical Association Awards committee as the top 5 books in Pathology and was a finalist for the best book award in 2018. The 3rd edition of the book was published in September 2022. She has also coedited the 3rd edition of Clinical Cytopathology, published in Nov 2017 with her mentor, Dr Ramzy.

Dr. Barkan received her medical degree from Marmara University School of Medicine in Istanbul, Turkey in 1995. She completed residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Michigan in 2001, and a surgical pathology fellowship there in 2002. She also completed a cytopathology fellowship at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 2003. She joined the Loyola University Medical Center department of pathology and laboratory medicine in January 2006. Her interests include cytopathology and surgical pathology of the genitourinary tract, and pathology education. She has authored a significant number of peer-reviewed publications, abstracts, chapters, and given numerous national and international invited talks and workshops, mostly in the fields of cytopathology and surgical pathology of the genitourinary system.

Dr. Michael J. Thrall works as both a cytopathologist and a general surgical pathologist with a focus on head and neck pathology. He is the Director of the Cytopathology Fellowship and Digital Pathology. He is on the Executive Board of the American Society of Cytopathology (ASC) and is a member of the Digital Pathology Committee of the College of American Pathologists (CAP). Dr. Thrall attended medical school and completed his AP/CP residency training, including a surgical pathology fellowship, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He then went on to complete a cytopathology fellowship at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.

Dr. Sinchita Roy-Chowdhuri is a Professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, TX, practicing Molecular Pathology and Cytopathology. She is currently the Solid Tumor Director of the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory and the Director of Molecular Cytopathology at MDACC. She co-leads the Clinical Trials Operations unit in the Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and serves as the Principle Investigator for the NCI-MATCH Adult and Pediatric clinical trials. Her interests include biomarker testing, especially in non-small cell lung cancer, and the application of molecular diagnostics in cytopathology.

Dr. Roy-Chowdhuri has presented several educational courses at national and international meetings and published over 140 peer-reviewed articles in the field of cytopathology and molecular pathology. She has authored several book chapters, served as a section Editor for the WHO Blue book for Lung Cytopathology, and is co-Editor of the book Molecular Diagnostics in Cytopathology: A Practical handbook for the Practicing Pathologist. She serves as Associate Editor for Cancer Cytopathology and the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. She is a committee member in several professional societies, including serving on the Executive Board of the American Society of Cytopathology. In addition, Dr. Roy-Chowdhuri co-founded a pathology educational mobile app, CytoAtlas, and can be frequently seen participating in pathology education on social media. She serves as a mentor to pathology trainees and can be followed on her Facebook page, @SinchitaRoyMDPhD and on Twitter/X @Sinchita_Roy.

Dr. Syed Zulfiqar Ali is a professor of pathology and an associate professor of radiology and radiological science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He serves as director of the Division of Cytopathology and as director of the Cytopathology Fellowship Training Program. His research interests address diagnostic issues and prognostic factors of clinicopathologic analyses, primarily based on aspiration cytopathology of pancreas, thyroid and soft tissues.

Dr. Ali holds an M.D. from Rawalpindi Medical College in Pakistan. He completed a residency in pediatrics at the Metropolitan Hospital Center of New York Medical College and a residency in pathology at Cornell University Medical Center. He also conducted a postdoctoral fellowship in pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as a fellowship in cytopathology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. Ali has authored or co-authored hundreds of peer-reviewed publications. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Society of Cytopathology and is co-editor of “The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology.” Dr. Ali is an active member of the American Society of Cytopathology, where he has served as the chair of various committees and was on the executive board.