Phillip N. Blondeel, MD, PhD to give 2026 Maliniac Lecture

Phillip Blondeel, MD, PhD, will give the annual Maliniac Lecture during Plastic Surgery The Meeting in Houston.

The Maliniac Lecture will take place 10:30 - 11 a.m., Sunday, October 18, 2026.

Dr. Blondeel’s lecture is titled: A Generation to Transform: Shrinking Donor Sites to Stem Cell Scale

Dr. Blondeel is the chairman of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery department at the Ghent University Hospital and a full professor at the Ghent University in Belgium. He is part-time active as an attending plastic surgeon at Clinique Montchoisi in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was appointed in 2024 as adjunct professor at the Wake Forest University Medical School, department of Plastic Surgery.

Additionally, Dr. Blondeel serves as the chairman and founder of the Ghent Academy of Plastic Surgery (GAPS) and the president and founding member of GATE (Ghent Advanced Therapies and Tissue Engineering). GATE connects researchers and clinicians who are inspired by the extraordinary potential of emerging gene, cell and tissue engineering technologies to transform the way we treat uncurable diseases, build artificial organs and human-on-chips.

He holds membership in numerous scientific societies, including the American Society for Reconstructive Surgery and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. He is an honorary member of the Canadian, South African, Kyrgyz, and Swiss Society of Plastic Surgery. He was the 2021-23 president of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons.

He is also the creator, co-founder, and president of the board of the “Beautiful After Breast Cancer Foundation.” This public non-profit foundation aims to increase awareness and fund research projects in the field of reconstructive breast surgery.

Dr. Blondeel, who is a world-renowned expert on aesthetic and reconstructive breast surgery, is a frequently invited speaker and teacher who has also authored or co-authored numerous books, book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, and abstracts.

He is recognized for his contributions and pioneering in “perforator flaps surgery”. He was the general team leader and head surgeon of the first facial transplant in Belgium. He now leads a strong team of fundamental researchers pioneering regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and 3D-bioprinting.

History of the Maliniac Lecture

Jacques Maliniac, MD, established the lectureship, providing funds to ensure that it would continue at each Plastic Surgery The Meeting. Its purpose was to introduce the society to outstanding speakers, who have made significant contributions to the field of plastic surgery, from around the world.

In fact, the only stipulation was that the speaker could live anywhere in the world but not in the United States. Hence, the goal was to expose the membership to people, ideas, and innovative techniques and procedures that they would not ordinarily have access to.