Meet our new Faculty Members

04 May, 2022

Dr. Sean Bennett

Dr. Sean Bennett – General Surgery

Dr. Bennett joins the Division of General Surgery as a Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) Surgical Oncologist. He completed his General Surgery residency, as well as a Master’s in Epidemiology, at the University of Ottawa. He is dual-accredited in Surgical Oncology and HPB from the University of Toronto fellowship program.

Dr. Bennett provides care for patients with advanced HPB malignancies such as pancreatic cancer, biliary tract cancers, colorectal cancer liver metastases, and neuroendocrine tumors. His research focuses primarily on perioperative and cancer clinical trials, as well as health services research. He looks forward to contributing to the education of the next generation of surgeons and physicians being trained at Queen’s.

Dr. Holly Mewhort

Dr. Holly Mewhort – Cardiovascular Surgery

Dr. Holly Mewhort is an Assistant Professor and Attending Surgeon. She completed her residency in Cardiac Surgery at the University of Calgary, during which time she obtained her PhD in Cardiovascular and Respiratory Sciences.

Dr. Mewhort’s PhD thesis focused on the surgical utilization of biomaterials and their impact on cardiac remodeling and functional recovery following ischemic injury. She completed her fellowship in Advanced Adult Cardiac Surgery (minimally invasive and robotics) at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. Her interests include minimally invasive, robotic and complex heart valve surgery and translational research.

Dr. Mewhort is the recipient of the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia, the Vivien Thomas Young Investigator Award, the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons Dr. Paul Cartier Cardiac Surgery Resident Award and the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta L.B. Mitchell Clinical Research Prize.

Dr. Teresa Purzner

Dr. Teresa Purzner - Neurosurgery

Dr. Teresa Purzner is a clinician-scientist neurosurgeon with a special interest in neuro-oncology and general neurosurgery. She completed her residency training at the University of Toronto, and her PhD training at Stanford University. Her lab is focused on interdisciplinary approaches to identifying novel drug targets for brain cancer, as well as the translation of promising new drug targets into human-ready therapeutics.

Dr. Purzner’s work has led to the identification of a critical new drug target in the brain tumor medulloblastoma – a discovery that she has since translated into a novel drug for both brain cancer and skin cancer, currently being tested in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. This work has resulted in her being named a Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate fellow, Biox fellow and SPARK fellow, and has earned her both national and international recognition, including the Annual Award of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, the K.G. McKenzie prize for Basic Science Research, AANS Louise Eisenhardt Award and the Neurosurgery Research and Education Fellowship. Dr. Purzner was also named as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 in 2021.

Dr. Peter Szasz

Dr. Peter Szasz – General Surgery

Dr. Peter Szasz joins the Division of General Surgery as an Assistant Professor and Bariatric and General Surgeon. He completed his residency in General Surgery at the University of Toronto, during which time he obtained a PhD in surgical education, where he focused on competency-based education and assessment practices. He completed his fellowship in Advanced Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University.

Dr. Szasz’s clinical interests include bariatric and metabolic surgery, abdominal wall reconstruction and herniorrhaphy. His research focuses on improving surgical education and assessment practices along the continuum of resident training, as well as outcomes-based studies as they relate to bariatric surgery and hernia repair techniques.

Dr. Shervin Taslimi

Dr. Shervin Taslimi – Neurosurgery

Dr. Taslimi graduated at the top of his class from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and has completed his Masters of Public Health. He is an experienced clinical study designer and data analyst, including large epidemiological studies.

Dr. Taslimi joined the University of Toronto Neurosurgery program to pursue his Neurosurgery residency training, then completed a fellowship training in complex open and endoscopic skull base Neurosurgery at Saint Michael’s Hospital. He has an interest in clinical neuro-oncology research.

Meet our new Faculty Members

Recent post block

View All