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To create a world without kidney diseases, the ASN Alliance for Kidney Health elevates care by educating and informing, driving breakthroughs and innovation, and advocating for policies that create transformative changes in kidney medicine throughout the world.

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Awards

2019 Award Recipients

Robert G. Narins Award

Mitchell H. Rosner, MD, FASN

Mitchell Rosner, MD, will receive the Robert G. Narins Award on Saturday, Nov. 9, for his many efforts in education and training the next generation of nephrologists.

Dr. Rosner is the Henry B. Mulholland Professor of Medicine in the division of nephrology and chairman of the department of medicine at the University of Virginia (UVA).

His clinical practice focuses on the care of patients with all forms of kidney disease, from acute kidney failure to ESKD. His special interest in patients with polycystic kidney disease led Dr. Rosner to found the first regional clinic to specialize in the management of these patients. He also directs the UVA home dialysis program.

His research interests include the pathogenesis and management of disorders of sodium and water balance, the treatment of polycystic kidney disease, quality improvement in peritoneal dialysis, and the development of novel therapeutics for acute kidney injury. He has participated in more than 10 clinical trials devoted to various aspects of kidney disease.

Dr. Rosner has published more than 170 research articles in peer-reviewed medical journals. He serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals and is the editor-at-large for CJASN.

He has received many teaching awards from UVA, including departmental awards from medicine and internal medicine, a dean’s award for excellence in teaching, and an all-university award for best teacher. The American College of Physicians presented him with an award for the most influential project to stimulate the interest of medical students in internal medicine as a career.

The U.S. Department of State recognized him with a certificate of appreciation for the development of a collaborative education and research effort between UVA and San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza, Italy. Dr. Rosner helped develop a UVA course on teaching in academic medicine and organized a yearly symposium where nephrology fellows from regional programs present their original research in a judged competition. For ASN, he co-developed an in-service examination for nephrology fellows-in-training and served on the training program directors’ executive committee, postgraduate education committee, and education committee. He co-directed the ASN Board Review Course and Update. He has co-chaired the program committee and served as co-director for Kidney Week.

He also served on the education committees of the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis and the Association of Specialty Professors.

Dr. Rosner received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and completed a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in nephrology at UVA. He served as assistant professor of medicine at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Ga., then joined the UVA faculty in 2004.

Belding H. Scribner Award

Paul L. Kimmel, MD, FASN

The Belding H. Scribner Award will be tendered to Paul L. Kimmel, MD, on Sunday, Nov. 10, for his career-long contributions to the practice of nephrology. Dr. Kimmel is program manager of the Kidney Precision Medicine Project and director of the HIV Kidney Program at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in Bethesda, Md.

Established in 1995, the Belding H. Scribner Award is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the care of patients with kidney disorders or have substantially influenced the clinical practice of nephrology. Dr. Kimmel has made significant contributions in patient care, research, and service to professional organizations.

He has been a faculty member in the department of medicine at George Washington University in Washington, DC, since 1983. He was director of the division of renal diseases and hypertension at George Washington University Medical Center from 2001 to 2006.

Dr. Kimmel served as the director of education for ASN from 2006 to 2007 and joined the NIDDK in 2008. He currently serves as senior advisor to the director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases, where he has managed programs in HIV-associated kidney disease, acute kidney injury, clinical genetics of kidney disease, kidney precision medicine, and opioid use in dialysis patients. His research interests include sleep disorders, quality of life, and psychosocial issues (including depression, anxiety, and perception of social support) in ESKD and CKD patients. He is also interested in HIV-associated kidney diseases, long-term outcomes of acute kidney injury, perception of pain, and inflammatory and immunologic factors mediating outcomes in patients with kidney failure.

He has published more than 300 papers, edited two monographs, and edited two editions of the textbook Chronic Renal Disease.

Dr. Kimmel has served on the editorial boards of Blood Purification, American Journal of Kidney Diseases, JASN, and CJASN.

He was recently inducted as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London and is a master of the American College of Physicians. He served as a board member and president of the Academy of Medicine of Washington, DC.

Dr. Kimmel received his medical degree from the New York University school of medicine and trained in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He completed a fellowship in renal and electrolyte disorders at the University of Pennsylvania hospital and stayed there as a faculty member until joining George Washington University.

John P. Peters Award

Vicente E. Torres, MD, PhD

ASN will recognize the wide-ranging contributions of Vicente E. Torres, MD, PhD, with the presentation of the John P. Peters Award on Friday, Nov. 8.

The John P. Peters Award is given for outstanding contributions to improving the lives of patients and to furthering the understanding of the kidney in health and disease.

Dr. Torres is director of the Mayo Translational Polycystic Kidney Disease Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

His research has focused on polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and related diseases for three decades. He has published on wide-ranging topics related to these diseases, including their epidemiology, phenotypic characterization, natural history, and clinical management. He has also worked to identify responsible genes as well as the expression and function of their encoded proteins. He has led preclinical and clinical therapeutic trials as well as translational studies aimed at improving treatment for autosomal dominant PKD.

He has been the principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded CRISP imaging study, the recently completed HALT-PKD clinical trial, and industry-funded clinical trials of vasopressin V2 receptor antagonists. His research has led to publication of 350 articles, three books or monographs, 50 book chapters, and 400 abstracts.

He has been active on NIH study sections and advisory panels in his research area and on the scientific advisory board of the PKD Foundation. He has organized many meetings on PKD, including the first Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) controversies conference dedicated to PKD and the 2017 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology science research conference on PKD. Dr. Torres has served on the editorial boards of Kidney, Kidney International, American Journal of Kidney Diseases, NephSAP, CJASN, and JASN.

His contributions to PKD research have been recognized by the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Advancement in the Understanding of PKD and by Mayo naming him to the Robert M. and Billie J. Pirnie Professorship in Kidney Research.

Dr. Torres received medical and doctoral degrees from the University of Barcelona in Spain and moved to the Mayo Clinic in 1972 for research fellowships and residencies in internal medicine and nephrology. He joined the faculty there in 1979 and became professor of medicine in 1991. He served for five years as chair of the division of nephrology and hypertension and for eight years as director of the kidney disease research training grant program at the Mayo Clinic.

Homer W. Smith Award

Toshiro Fujita, MD, PhD, FASN

Hypertension researcher Toshiro Fujita, MD, PhD, will be presented the 2019 Homer W. Smith Award on Sunday, Nov. 10. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to understanding how kidneys function in normal and diseased states.

Dr. Fujita will speak on “Salt, Hypertension, and the Kidneys.”

He is a senior fellow at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology and chief of the division of clinical epigenetics. He is also an emeritus professor after serving as chair of the department of nephrology and endocrinology at the university’s school of medicine. Dr. Fujita has a long track record of nephrological research in elucidating mechanisms and clinical challenges of salt-sensitive hypertension.

In 2008, his team reported a seminal discovery of the unique role of the Rho family GTPase Rac1 as a potent regulator of mineralocorticoid receptor nuclear translocation and resultant salt retention, proteinuria, and glomerulosclerosis.

Dr. Fujita had previously contributed to our knowledge of salt-sensitive hypertension when, working with Dr. Fred Bartter’s laboratory at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, he reported heightened adrenergic activity as a key factor in salt sensitivity. In 2011, his team defined a lengthy and complex adrenergic pathway leading to sodium retention and resulting hypertension.

Dr. Fujita’s group also found that the renin-angiotensin system in the brain plays an important role in prenatal programmed salt-sensitive hypertension.

These discoveries have been invaluable contributions to the understanding of the role of dietary salt in hypertension and kidney diseases and led to publication of more than 600 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Fujita has made many other contributions to the profession by serving as president of the Japanese Society of Nephrology, an invited speaker at ASN, a symposium organizer for the International Society of Nephrology, and a work group member of Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes. He chaired the 2018 Gordon research conference on angiotensin.

His contributions have been recognized by the Arthur Corcoran Memorial Lecture award and the Excellent Award for Hypertension Research from the American Heart Association, an honorary membership from the European Society of Hypertension, and the Franz Volhard Award from the International Society of Hypertension. He also received the medal of the purple ribbon from Japan’s emperor for the promotion of science in Japan.

Dr. Fujita received his medical and doctoral degrees from Keio University School of Medicine, where he also did his internship and residency in nephrology. He then completed a fellowship at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He joined the faculty of the University of Tokyo in 1988.

Donald W. Seldin Young Investigator Award

Samir M. Parikh, MD, FASN

The Donald W. Seldin Young Investigator Award will be presented to Samir M. Parikh, MD, who will speak on “Prospects for NAD+ Based Therapies in Acute Kidney Injury” on Friday, Nov. 8.

Dr. Parikh is associate professor of medicine and associate vice chair for research at Harvard Medical School. He is also director of the Center for Vascular Biology Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

His research is focused on molecular mechanisms underlying acute kidney injury and sepsis. In recent studies, the Parikh laboratory has implicated mitochondrial maintenance via PGC1α and NAD+ as a novel pathway for resilience against acute kidney injury. Ongoing studies are examining mechanistic links between acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and aging and how NAD+ metabolism impacts injury in other organs.

Dr. Parikh has served as the principal investigator on research grants from the National Institutes of Health, ASN, American Heart Association, and American Diabetes Association.

He has served ASN as a member of the ASN Highlights faculty, a member of the Kidney Self-Assessment Program committee, reviewer of abstracts for Kidney Week, chair of AKI abstracts review for Kidney Week, member of the Kidney Week program committee, member of the “Securing the Future” capital campaign committee, member of the JASN editorial board, and associate editor for ASN’s newest journal, Kidney360.

He served on the committee on acute kidney injury of the International Society of Nephrology and on the editorial boards of the Public Library of Science and JASN.

An elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, Dr. Parikh has received the outstanding investigator award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the Sir William Osler Young Investigator Award from the Interurban Clinical Club; and the Carl Gottschalk Award from ASN. He received the founder’s medal for highest academic standing from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed postgraduate medical training and a fellowship in nephrology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.

President's Medal

Department of Health and Human Services

Distinguished Educator Award

Kambiz Kalantari, MD, MS

Dr. Kalantari is associate professor of medicine in the division of nephrology at the University of Virginia (UVA).

He began his focus on medical education in 2010. He participated in the UVA school of medicine’s overhaul of its teaching curriculum, and since then has served as the course director of the renal system in the pre-clerkship curriculum.

Since 2012, he has served as the UVA nephrology fellowship director. In addition to his teaching and administrative responsibilities in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, he contributes to training junior faculty across a range of disciplines through faculty development workshops in medical education.

Nationally, he has served as a member of the ASN In-Training Exam Test Materials Development Committee and Career Advancement Committee.

Dr. Kalantari completed his medical training at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran before traveling to the United States in 1995. He completed his internal medicine residency at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Maryland and his nephrology fellowship at UVA, before joining the UVA faculty in 2002. In 2007, he received an NIH career development award in clinical research that permitted him to complete a master’s degree in clinical research and also conduct human and animal research in the field of contrast ultrasonography.

Stephen M. Sozio, MD, MHS, MEHP, FASN

Dr. Sozio is associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and serves in multiple educational roles at his institution, nationally, and internationally. He is a medical school course director for two courses covering the preclinical. He is also one of the core faculty advisors who guides students from their first day of medical school through graduation; he has advised 68 students and serves as one of the college’s faculty leaders.

He is associate director of the Hopkins nephrology fellowship program and teaches an adult learning course in the school of education. He has taught or developed educational programs in eight different countries, including Turkey, Israel, Qatar, China, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan.

Dr. Sozio has made many contributions to ASN in education. He was a member of the workforce committee and is currently on the Workforce and Training Committee. He co-leads the Students and Residents (STARS) program at Kidney Week, chairs the ASN Data Subcommittee, and is Principal Investigator of the ASN Nephrology Fellow Survey. He has been on the planning committee for the Nephrology Training Program Retreat. Dr. Sozio has received several awards at Johns Hopkins for his contributions to education, including the Lisa J. Heiser Award for Junior Faculty Contribution in Education, Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award, and the W. Barry Wood Jr. Award for Excellence in Teaching.

He received his medical degree as well as master’s degrees in epidemiology and education from Johns Hopkins University. He completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania and a nephrology fellowship at Johns Hopkins.

Distinguished Leader Award

Deidra C. Crews, MD, ScM, FASN

Dr. Crews is associate professor of medicine in the division of nephrology and associate vice chair for diversity and inclusion at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She holds faculty appointments with the school of nursing; the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research; the Center on Aging and Health; and the Center for Health Equity, where she is associate director for research development.

Dr. Crews has chaired the Johns Hopkins department of medicine diversity council since 2013. In this capacity she directs efforts to enhance recruitment and retention of under-represented minority faculty and trainees and promotes civility and inclusiveness. She is the founding director of the doctoral diversity program at Johns Hopkins, a research-intensive post-baccalaureate program for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She chairs the ASN Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is a member of the nephrology board of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Crews has received numerous awards for her research addressing disparities in chronic kidney disease and hypertension, including the Johns Hopkins University President’s Frontier Award—a $250,000 award granted to a faculty scholar who is on the cusp of transforming their field. She has examined how the social determinants of health—including poverty and access to healthful foods—contribute to disparities in kidney disease.

She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine and was the academy’s inaugural Gilbert S. Omenn Anniversary Fellow. Dr. Crews also received the W. Lester Henry Award for Diversity and Access to Care from the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Crews received her medical degree from Saint Louis University. She completed a nephrology fellowship and a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology at Johns Hopkins.

Daniel E. Weiner, MD, MS, FASN

Dr. Weiner is a nephrologist at Tufts Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

His research interests include cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease in people with kidney disease as well as dialysis epidemiology. He was a site principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health-funded systolic blood pressure intervention trial (SPRINT). He is the principal investigator with Dialysis Clinic Inc. of a trial of oral nutritional supplements in more than 11,000 in-center hemodialysis patients. He is collaborating with a team at Boston University to investigate the epidemic of CKD in Nicaragua that disproportionately affects young men of working age.

Dr. Weiner was deputy editor of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases and is currently editor-in-chief of both Kidney Medicine and the Primer on Kidney Diseases.

He has participated in multiple guideline-writing groups, controversies meetings, and technical expert panels. His activities with ASN include serving on the dialysis advisory group, on the public policy board, and as the inaugural chair of the Quality Committee. He is currently ASN’s representative to Kidney Care Partners, and is dedicated to improving systems and policies to benefit kidney patients.

Dr. Weiner received his medical degree from Tufts. He completed a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at the University of Maryland. He returned to Tufts for a nephrology fellowship, at which time he also obtained a master’s degree in clinical care research with a biostatistics concentration.

Distinguished Researcher Award

David Cherney, MD, PhD

Dr. Cherney is associate professor in the department of medicine at the University of Toronto. He is also a clinician scientist and director of the renal physiology laboratory at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospitals.

Dr. Cherney’s research focuses on the physiological factors that initiate kidney disease in patients with diabetes, such as renal hyperfiltration and inflammation. His research is closely aligned with his integrated and multidisciplinary cardiac-renal-endocrine clinic at the University Health Network, which maintains a strong emphasis on the prevention of diabetic nephropathy and related cardiovascular disease. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts.

He receives operating funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Heart and Stroke Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and Banting and Best Diabetes Center. He serves on the editorial boards of CJASN and Cardiorenal Medicine.

Dr. Cherney studied medicine at McGill University. He completed his clinical training in nephrology and his doctorate in human renal physiology at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto.

Laurence H. Beck, Jr., MD, PhD

Dr. Beck is associate professor in the department of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and a practicing nephrologist at Boston Medical Center.

During his nephrology research fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. David Salant at Boston Medical Center, Dr. Beck investigated membranous nephropathy. The researchers identified the target antigen in adult primary membranous nephropathy as the M-type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R1), as they reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009. This report stimulated a new wave of investigations into the pathogenesis of membranous nephropathy as well as the clinical use of anti-PLA2R1 autoantibodies for the diagnosis and monitoring of disease.

In a second New England Journal of Medicine report, and in collaboration with the Stahl laboratory in Germany and the Lambeau laboratory in France, Dr. Beck’s laboratory described the identification of the second autoantigen in primary membranous nephropathy: thrombospondin type-1 domain-containing 7A (THSD7A).

Dr. Beck continues to collaborate with several research teams nationally and internationally, focusing on the humoral responses to PLA2R1, THSD7A, and other antigens in autoimmune kidney diseases.

He is a reviewer for CJASN; American Journal of Kidney Diseases; Nephrology, Dialysis, and Transplantation; New England Journal of Medicine; American Journal of Nephrology; and International Journal of Nephrology.

Dr. Beck graduated from Harvard Medical School with a dual medical degree and doctorate in cell and developmental biology. He completed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at Boston Medical Center.

Distinguished Mentor Award

Michal L. Melamed, MD

Dr. Melamed is associate professor of medicine and associate professor of epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center.

Dr. Melamed has mentored high school students, college students, medical students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty members since joining the faculty at Albert Einstein. She served as the director of residency research for the internal medicine program and has directed the nephrology fellowship program since 2012.

She has received many teaching and mentorship awards at Einstein-Montefiore. Her mentees have published numerous manuscripts and successfully competed for National Institutes of Health (NIH) and foundation career development and independent investigator grants.

Dr. Melamed’s research interests include risk factors for progression of kidney disease, metabolic acidosis, vitamin D, and health services interventions to improve kidney disease outcomes. She has been continuously funded by NIH since 2007 and has authored more than 80 publications, many with associates she has mentored as first author. She is the principal investigator of an NIH grant aimed at training junior investigators for research in kidney disease.

She received her medical degree and completed her internal medicine and nephrology training at Johns Hopkins. During her fellowship, she obtained a master’s degree in health sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Tamara Isakova, MD

Dr. Isakova is associate professor of medicine in the division of nephrology and hypertension and director of the Center for Translational Metabolism and Health within the Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Isakova conducts clinical research in the area of disordered mineral metabolism in chronic kidney disease. She has received research support from the American Kidney Fund, American Heart Association, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, and ASN.

In addition to her research, she provides clinical care for patients with CKD, bone and mineral metabolism disorders, and kidney stones.

Dr. Isakova is a leader in postdoctoral training and has mentored medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty, many of whom are developing independent research programs focused on improving clinical outcomes for patients with kidney diseases. Among her honors, she delivered the Jack W. Coburn Endowed Lectureship at ASN Kidney Week in 2017.

Dr. Isakova earned her medical degree from State University of New York Downstate College of Medicine and a master of medical science from Harvard Medical School. She completed internal medicine training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a nephrology fellowship at the combined Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital program.

Distinguished Clinical Service Award

Jay L. Koyner, MD, FASN

Dr. Koyner is associate professor of medicine in the nephrology section at the University of Chicago. He is medical director of the inpatient dialysis unit and director of the nephrology ICU.

Over the past decade, he has served in many roles for ASN, including as a member of the Acute Kidney Injury Advisory Group, co-director of the critical care nephrology Early Program, and co-editor of the Nephrology Self-Assessment Program (NephSAP) for acute kidney injury and critical care nephrology. He is currently a faculty member of ASN Highlights.

He has served on the editorial boards of CJASN, American Journal of Nephrology, and Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease.

Dr. Koyner’s critical care nephrology research has focused on the use of plasma and urine biomarkers to improve patient risk stratification and outcomes in the setting of acute kidney injury (AKI). He has contributed to several multicenter studies investigating biomarkers of AKI, including the TRIBE-AKI study, the Furosemide Stress Test study, and several industry-sponsored investigations. He recently began developing an electronic health record–derived AKI risk score, with the goal of improving the care of patients at high risk for developing severe hospital-acquired AKI.

He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on AKI and the care of kidney injury patients in the ICU.

Dr. Koyner received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he also received a degree with distinction in research following completion of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellowship. He completed his internal medicine and nephrology training at the University of Chicago.

Duvuru Geetha, MD, FASN

Dr. Geetha is associate professor of medicine in the division of nephrology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She is associate director for the Johns Hopkins Vasculitis Center and does clinical and translational research in vasculitis, with a focus on ANCA-associated vasculitis and kidney disease. Dr. Geetha served as a clinical investigator in multi-center clinical trials in vasculitis, including the RAVE trial, which led to the approval of rituximab for treatment of ANCA vasculitis.

For ASN, Dr. Geetha served on the ASN Postgraduate Education Committee from 2015 to 2018. She is a member of the Nephrology Self-Assessment Program (NephSAP) review panel and a member of the ASN Kidney Health Initiative, focusing on glomerular disease. Dr. Geetha is involved through her work with the Vasculitis Foundation in increasing awareness among patients and physicians about the diagnosis and treatment of vasculitis. She has lectured at national and international vasculitis patient care symposia to educate patients about early detection of renal vasculitis and treatment options.

Dr. Geetha is a peer reviewer for several nephrology and rheumatology journals. She has served as a professional development award grant reviewer for the Vasculitis Foundation and Kidney Research U.K. as well as an abstract reviewer for the American Society of Transplantation and ASN Kidney Week.

A graduate of Madras Medical College, India, she completed postgraduate internal medicine training in the U.K. She completed her internal medicine residency in York, Penn., and her nephrology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at Hopkins in 1998.