Philanthropy Spotlights

Andyshea Afyouni is no stranger to the Department of Urology. At 16 years of age, Andyshea (left photo) was one of the first students in our Summer Surgery Program and later went on to be a student mentor with the program before attending UCLA for his undergraduate education. After graduating UCLA Summa cum Laude in 2019, Andyshea dedicated a year to research in the Curiosity and Innovation laboratory with the mentorship of Drs. Ralph V. Clayman and Jaime Landman before matriculating into medical school in August 2020 at UCI School of Medicine.

Even with a busy medical school schedule, Andyshea has remained productive in the laboratory, and continues work including testing the safety and efficacy of ultrasound-guided renal mass biopsies in detecting small renal tumors, determining the safety of using new thulium fiber lasers for stone lithotripsy and tissue ablation, and examining the global usage of the Department’s smartphone endoscopy technology, the Endockscope, among urologists from over 20 countries. Andyshea has presented at several conferences including the World Congress of Endourology in 2019, Western Section AUA in 2020 and will be presenting at both the American Urological Association and World Congress of Endourology annual meetings later this year.

In 2020, Andyshea was 1 of 15 national awardees of the prestigious American Urological Association (AUA) Summer Medical Student Fellowship for his work with Drs. Ralph Clayman, Jaime Landman, and recent graduated endourology fellow Dr. Pengbo Jiang on determining the benefit of sequential dilation prior to ureteral access sheath insertion for patients undergoing routine ureteroscopy. With the student stipend that was awarded to him from the AUA, Andyshea generously donated half of his stipend to the Department’s Fevus Landman Effort for Curiosity and Innovation Fund and was inducted as the youngest member of the UCI Urology Nautilus Club.

Dr. Alexander Korn was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1938 and escaped with his parents to Cuba on the last boat to be allowed to disembark before the tragic St. Louis. He arrived in the US in 1941 and after a series of schools in different countries, he graduated from City College of New York and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at Wadsworth UCLA in 1969 and while there became a lifelong Bruin fan. Dr. Korn achieved his dream of being a physician and surgeon, and practiced surgery in West Los Angeles where he was well-recognized as an outstanding surgeon. Upon retirement he found fulfillment as a volunteer clinical professor at UCSD where he developed a passion for surgical education.

After receiving care by the University of California, Irvine Department of Urology, Dr. Korn formed a tight professional bond and deep friendship with Dr. Jaime Landman. Partnering for their mutual passion for medical education, surgical innovation and clinical excellence, Dr. Korn has generously endowed the Korn-Landman LIFT scholar program which will assure annual support for a medical student LIFT experience in perpetuity.