The Duke University School of Medicine faculty is comprised of outstanding investigators and clinicians who are dedicated to improving human health locally and globally. As such the School’s faculty members are often recognized with national and international awards. This page was created to highlight some of our faculty’s meritorious accomplishments, extol the most recent progress in medicine and clinical care and to inspire achievement in others.

Awards & Honors

May 2013

Hayden B. Bosworth, Ph.D., will receive this year's Under Secretary's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research. The highest honor for a VA health services researcher, the award recognizes work that has met three key criteria: improved our understanding of factors that affect the health of Veterans and improved the quality of their care; contributed to the future of VA health services research by inspiring and training the next generation of investigators; and enhanced the visibility of VA research.

David Epstein, MD, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, was presented the Mildred Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology at the ARVO (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) Annual Meeting in May. This award is presented annually to an individual in recognition of distinguished scholarly contributions to the clinical practice of ophthalmology. 

Vadim Arshavsky, PhD, the Helena Rubinstein Professor of Ophthalmology and scientific director at the Duke Eye Center, was named the recipient of the 2013 Proctor Medal, the top award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), recognizing his outstanding research in the areas of experimental ophthalmology and visual sciences.

Glenn Jaffe, M.D., and John Perfect, M.D. were named to endowed professorships by Duke University on May 2, 2013. These awards are among the most prestigious faculty appointments at Duke. They recognize the recipients’ outstanding achievements in health care, research and medical education. The awards would not have been possible without the support of generous donors. 

Fourteen Duke University School of Medicine faculty members were recognized for their outstanding achievements in patient care, research and education at the School's annual Spring Faculty Meeting. 

At the recent American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI)/Association of American Physicians (AAP) Joint Annual Meeting in Chicago, six Duke University School of Medicine faculty members and one Duke-NUS faculty member were inducted into the ASCI, and seven Duke University School of Medicine faculty members were inducted into the AAP.

April 2013

Huntington Willard, Ph.D., director of the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP), has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Dean Nancy Andrews, M.D., Ph.D. was awarded the Marion Spencer Fay Award, which is presented annually to a woman physician and/or scientist who has made an exceptionally significant contribution to health care as a practitioner, medical educator, administrator and/or research scientist and who exhibits significant future potential.

Holly Lisanby, M.D., has been invited to serve as a new member of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC). This board is charged with conducting periodic scientific peer reviews of intramural research efforts at the Institute. The BSC is an advisory body to the Director of NIMH, and to the Scientific Director of NIMH’s Division of Intramural Research Programs.

Mary Klotman, M.D., has been appointed to the Association of Professors of Medicine (APM) board of directors. The APM is the organization of departments of internal medicine represented by chairs and appointed leaders at medical schools and affiliated teaching hospitals in the United States and Canada. Dr. Klotman’s term as a member at-large will begin July 1, 2013 and end June 30, 2014.

Lloyd Michener, M.D., was recently awarded the Duncan Clark Award by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research for his contributions to the field of preventive medicine and population health. The Duncan Clark Award is presented to a senior-level professional with a distinguished record of achievement in the areas of teaching, research and/or advocacy in the field of public health and prevention.

Jeff Taekman, M.D.  is the recipient of the IARS 2013 Teaching Recognition Award for Innovation in Education. The Innovation in Education Award recognizes and funds novel concepts or applications that improve educational programs and advance the practice of anesthesiology.

Neil Prose, M.D. has been awarded the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award presented with the American Academy of Dermatology. This award was created by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to recognize physicians who demonstrate exceptional commitment to patient care.

The Duke Human Vaccine Institute received a Vaccine Industry Excellence Award as “Best Academic Research Team” at the World Vaccine Congress and Expo for its work in providing new insights into HIV vaccine protection.
 

March 2013

Holly Lisanby, MD. Holly has been invited to serve as a new member of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC). This board is charged with conducting periodic scientific peer reviews of intramural research efforts at the Institute. The BSC is an advisory body to the Director of NIMH, and to the Scientific Director of NIMH’s Division of Intramural Research Programs.
 

February 2013

Donald McDonnell, Ph.D., received the Endocrine Society’s 2013 Roy O. Greep Research Lecture Award which recognizes landmark contributions to our understanding of the complex pharmacology of nuclear hormone receptors.
 

January 2013

Barton F. Haynes, MD, was selected for the 2013 AAI-Steinman Award for Human Immunology Research. Since 2005, this award has annually recognized an individual who has made significant contributions to the understanding of immune processes underlying human disease pathogenesis, prevention, or therapy.

Hai Yan, MD, Svati Shah, MD, and David Kirsch, MD, PhD, were elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Thank you to Mary Klotman, MD, and Joe Heitman, MD, PhD, for taking the lead with this effort.

Janet Prvu Bettger, ScD, in the School of Nursing, and Christopher Cox, MD, MHA, MPH, in the School of Medicine were two of 25 award recipients of Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grants. Each will receive funding for patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research projects.

Scott Kollins, PhD, and Shawn McClintock, PhD, were recently elected to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Anna Brown, a 1st year medical student, received a poster award at the American Medical Association Scientific Symposium for her work on imaging thyroid nodules.
 

2012

8 Faculty Members Elected as Fellows to AAAS

Election as a Fellow of AAAS is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers. Fellows are recognized for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications. This year, the following faculty were elected as AAAS fellows:

Michael Krangel, PhD, Chair, Department of Immunology – For distinguished contributions to the field of immunology, particularly for clarifying the mechanisms by which antigen receptor repertoires are created by V(D)J recombination. 

Soman N. Abraham, PhD, Professor of Pathology – For distinguished and pioneering contributions to the elucidation of mechanisms of bacterial pathogenicity and host immune responses, particularly the important role of mast cells.

 Pat Casey, PhD, James B. Duke Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Professor of Biochemistry – For distinguished contributions to the fields of biochemistry and pharmacology, particularly to the study of protein modifications and their impact on cellular signaling processes.
 
Arno L. Greenleaf, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry – For distinguished contributions to understanding eukaryotic transcription and RNA polymerase II, with special contributions to illuminating CTD phosphorylation and its functional consequences.

Kenneth Kreuzer, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry – For outstanding contributions to the understanding of the modes of action of anti-topoisomerase drugs and the functional linkages between DNA replication and recombination.

Hiro Matsunami, PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology – For distinguished contributions to the field of chemical senses, particularly for characterization of mammalian chemosensory receptors.

Maria Schumacher, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry – For distinguished contributions in structural biology leading to critical insights into fundamental processes in nucleic acid transactions including DNA packaging, segregation and gene expression.

Raphael Valdivia, PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology – For significant contributions to the development of new technologies and approaches to study the genetic and molecular basis for virulence of pathogenic microbes.

Other Recent Awards 

David Epstein, M.D., is the recipient of the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize, which is awarded by the New York Academy of Medicine. The $50,000 prize is awarded for the most outstanding scholarly article on glaucoma published in a peer-reviewed journal during the previous calendar year.

Francis Keefe, PhD, has been named editor-in-chief of PAIN, the leading journal in the field of pain research. He was also named the John D. Loeser Distinguished Lecturer for the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

Robert Lefkowitz, M.D., is the co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Lefkowitz shares the award with Brian Kobilka, M.D., Stanford University School of Medicine, who was a post-doctoral fellow in Lefkowitz’s laboratory at Duke in the 1980s.

Debara Tucci, M.D., received the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Distinguished Service Award at the association’s annual meeting.