Answering Aesthetics’ Toughest Questions
The Aesthetic Foundation is devoted to improving the safety and effectiveness of aesthetic surgery and medicine through unbiased, novel research.
With your support, we can continue to uncover valuable insights that positively impact the future of our industry.
Our Mission
Demand for aesthetic procedures is rapidly increasing, creating safety concerns that risk patients’ lives and misconceptions that challenge the aesthetic industry and its future.
Our mission is to improve the safety and effectiveness of aesthetic surgery and medicine.
Established in 1993, The Aesthetic Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that funds and supports unbiased research that answers the biggest unknowns in aesthetics. The groundbreaking research we’ve funded has helped save patients' lives and improve aesthetic outcomes.
Externship Program: A Mentoring Experience
The Aesthetic Foundation's Externship Program helps make aesthetic education more accessible by providing medical students mentorship opportunities and increased exposure to aesthetic plastic surgery and research.
Externship
Focuses on general aesthetic plastic surgery education with potential for aesthetic research opportunities. In this program, we pair you with a board-certified plastic surgeon and Active Member of The Aesthetic Society for a yearlong 1:1 mentorship.Externship with Scholarship
Offers the same benefits as the Externship but includes a scholarship of up to $3,500 if you qualify to help cover program-related costs such as travel, lodging, local transportation, and meals to attend your observership and The Aesthetic Meeting.Cooperative Research Externship
Helps broaden your understanding of aesthetic research and your range of research skills. We match you with other medical students with similar interests but diverse abilities. Each cooperative team will assist with an active aesthetic research study.Turning Research into Results
Members of The Aesthetic Society or those they sponsor identify an issue or unknown in aesthetics and submit a research grant application.
How You Can Support Our Mission
Become a Member
Lead Research
Donate
Get Involved
Become a Member
Lead Research
Donate
Get Involved
Partner With Us
Lifetime Statistics
How We Can Support You
Research Grants
Research Findings
Research Community
SETA
Impact Stories
Receiving Our Resident Travel Scholarship Helped Propel His Education
Brian Bassiri-Tehrani, MD, was thrilled to be awarded the Resident Travel Scholarship in 2023. He was excited for the opportunity to attend The Aesthetic Meeting and learn new techniques from the best in the industry. “It was a transformative learning...
Our Externship Program Confirmed His Decision To Pursue Aesthetic Medicine
Christian Laurent, a medical student attending a medical school without a home plastic surgery program, was interested in learning more about plastic surgery so he could determine whether it was a path he wanted to pursue. The Aesthetic Foundation’s...
Foundation-Funded BBL Research Helped Save Lives
The Gluteal Fat Grafting Task Force set out to answer why people were dying during and after Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) surgeries and how to make the procedure safer. The Aesthetic Foundation co-funded groundbreaking research that uncovered key issues...
Latest Updates
Governance
The Aesthetic Foundation Welcomes Dr. Onelio Garcia Jr. as President
Published on May 5, 2024
Grants
BRAVE Coalition partners with The Aesthetic Foundation to support breast cancer patients
Published on May 22, 2024
Research
The Aesthetic Society & The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation Unveil Findings From the Biospecimen Study on Breast Implant Illness (BII)
Published on Nov 9, 2022
Donors
M. Bradley Calobrace, MD Joins President’s Circle of The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation
Published on Aug 11, 2020
Latest Updates
Featured
The Aesthetic Foundation Welcomes Dr. Onelio Garcia Jr. as President
Published on May 5, 2024
The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation Elects Bruce Van Natta, MD as its New President
Published on Apr 25, 2022
The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation Elects Louis L. Strock, MD as its New President
Published on May 3, 2021
The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation Elects Luis Rios, Jr., MD as New President
Published on May 13, 2020