Dr S. Raja Sabapathy, Chairman of the Department graduated from Stanley Medical College, Madras as the Best Outgoing Student, standing first in the University in Medicine and Surgery. He counts himself fortunate in having many great men like Prof R.Sarat Chandra, Dr V R Ravi Kumar Prof R, Venkataswami, Mr Bruce Bailey and Dr Harold Kleinert as his teachers and role models during his training period. He values that each of them in their own way, in addition to teaching surgical techniques taught him the skills in setting up a department and leading a dynamic team. This helped him to introduce reconstructive microsurgery to the region in 1991 and build up a world-renowned institution. His core interests and strengths have been in the field of Hand Surgery and Reconstructive Microsurgery and built up a very busy hand injury and replantation service.