Plastic Surgery Conferences

The joint annual meeting of the AAS and SUS, and probably the most student-accessible major surgical meeting there is: no membership needed to submit, and AAS student membership is only $25/yr (required for award eligibility only). A natural home for a retrospective or database project.

The best-structured student pathway in craniofacial: no membership gate, an explicit trainee track, and a multidisciplinary audience thick with plastics faculty. Disclosure forms for ALL authors are due Sep 8.

The one regional society with a genuinely open door. No geography or membership bar on general submission, plus a dedicated Breast category. Presenters may submit to the CSPS supplement in Annals of Plastic Surgery. (Their Resident Competition is walled to California programs; general submission is not.)

2027 meeting confirmed: May 15–18, JW Marriott Washington DC. Call for abstracts is open at meeting.aaps1921.org.

Very competitive, difficult to get in even as a resident. Hosted by AAPS. Abstract portal dates not publicly listed; check aaps1921.org each fall.

Max 3 abstracts per submitting author; a 1-minute video is required with submission, and at least one author must be a PSRC member. 2027: June 10–13, Pebble Beach CA.

Burn reconstruction is core plastics, no membership gate is stated, and accepted abstracts publish as a Journal of Burn Care & Research supplement, an indexed, citable line on your CV.

Aesthetic-surgery focused, separate from ASPS/PSTM. 2027 dates confirmed. Oral abstracts capped at 800 words; must be original/unpublished.

A separate society from NESPS, despite the near-identical name. The Joseph E. Murray Award explicitly includes medical students, but requires standing at an approved New England plastic surgery training program.

The strongest topical fit anywhere for breast reconstruction and free-flap microsurgery, with a comfortable deadline. Roughly 2,000 attendees from 80+ countries. Cost and travel are the barrier here, not eligibility.

The best-planned wound target: no membership required to submit and a long runway. WHS student membership is only $60/yr and unlocks trainee travel and young-investigator awards. Notification Mar 3, 2027; posters due Mar 31.

PA-only regional meeting. 2026 confirmed: March 20–21, The Gettysburg Hotel. Abstract deadline not listed on site, so contact society directly.

Hand is a large slice of plastics practice. 400-word structured abstract (Hypothesis / Methods / Results / Summary Points), max 2 images at 300 DPI, disclosure from every author. Accepted papers require a manuscript for moderator review.

Premier ASPS annual meeting, and the largest plastics conference in the US. 2027 dates confirmed; abstract call opens closer to the meeting. Each abstract may go to only one ASPS track.

Broad surgical audience. Good for outcomes/database studies with general-surgery crossover. 2027 dates confirmed.

One of the very few societies running a dedicated, VIRTUAL medical student competition, zero travel cost, which makes it worth watching even from outside the Southeast.

Has an explicit Student category, and non-selected abstracts may still display virtually. 750 words, CV required, and the cover letter must state Student.

Regional society for the Northeast. Good early-career venue. Submissions require a NESPS-member author or sponsor. Current meeting info at meeting.nesps.org.

The autumn half of the SAWC pair, with the same submission system and rules as SAWC Spring.

Shares one combined January meeting + submission portal with ASPN and AAHS. The 2027-cycle deadline (July 13, 2026) has closed.

Joint January meeting + portal with ASRM and AAHS. The 2027-cycle deadline (July 13, 2026) has closed.

Joint January meeting + portal with ASRM and ASPN. The 2027-cycle deadline (July 13, 2026) has closed.

Crossover between facial plastics and ENT. Strong rhinoplasty and facial recon content. Check aafprs.org for exact dates.

The upside is co-location with PSTM, the biggest plastics networking event of the year. Realistically accessible to a student as a co-author under an ASMS-member faculty sponsor.

Membership is described as inclusive to eligible plastic surgeons in all fifty states; no geographic bar is stated. Top abstracts publish in a PRS Global Open supplement. Student eligibility is not spelled out; ask before you build a project around it.

A small, friendly regional meeting.

The premier international craniofacial venue, and the highest-friction option here: biennial, international travel, and no student membership tier. Best approached as a co-author on faculty-led work.