2014 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients Announced

Brian G.M. Durie, M.D., E. Rolland Dickson, M.D., K. Krishnan Unni, M.B. B.S., and Richard Weinshilboum, M.D., have been named recipients of the 2014 Mayo Clinic Distinguished Alumni Award. The award honors individuals who exemplify Mayo Clinic’s ideals and mission. The honorees were recognized at a private black-tie dinner at the Mayo Foundation House in Rochester, Minn., on Oct. 20.

Brian G.M. Durie, M.D., is a professor of hematology/oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and a specialist in multiple myeloma and related disorders at Cedars-Sinai Outpatient Cancer Center at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute in Los Angeles. He also is chairman of the board of the International Myeloma Foundation and medical director of AMyC Myeloma Consortium Core Sciences Solutions, LLC.

Dr. Durie has made considerable contributions to the diagnosis, prognosis and management of multiple myeloma, including describing the first staging system for the disease (Durie-Salmon).

Rolland Dickson, M.D., is an emeritus professor of medicine in the College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., , a clinician investigator in the Department of Internal Medicine and a supplemental consultant in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

He is well known for his contributions to the research of liver transplantation and hepatic disorders. The data acquired through his research was the basis and forerunner for the Model for Endstage Liver Disease (MELD) score that is used throughout the world for assigning priority to patients awaiting liver transplantation.

Krishnan Unni, M.B. B.S., is a professor of pathology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a professor of pathology and orthopedics in the College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He is an icon in the pathology of benign and malignant bone and soft tissue tumors. He has recognized new entities including clear cell chrondrosarcoma and small cell osteosarcoma and has helped to establish current treatment guidelines.

Richard Weinshilboum, M.D., is chair of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Professor of Molecular Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics and Medicine and the Mary Lou and John H. Dasburg Professor in Cancer Genomics Research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He was a pioneer in pharmacogenetics, and his continuing translational work in developing safer, more effective drug therapies makes a seminal impact on present-day individualized medicine.