Professor of radiology
Alexander Family Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research
Division of Neuroradiology, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota
Mayo Clinic in Minnesota: Alexander Family Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research, 2007–present; clinician investigator, 2002–present; full faculty privileges, biomedical engineering and physiology, 1997–present; professor of radiology, 1995–present; associate professor of radiology, 1988–1995; assistant professor of radiology, 1986–1988; consultant, Division of Neuroradiology, 1985–present
Fellowship: Neuroradiology, Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Rochester, Minnesota
Residency: Chief resident, diagnostic radiology, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan
Medical school: Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan
Undergraduate: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Revolutionary Alzheimer’s pathophysiology disease researcher
It is virtually impossible to attend a scientific conference on Alzheimer’s disease and avoid seeing an image — most likely, many images — of a “Jack curve.”
These curves are named for Clifford Jack Jr., M.D. (RNEU ’84), the lead author of a 2010 Lancet Neurology paper outlining the theoretical progression of the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The curve illustrates the time course of AD biomarker changes and their association with cognition.
Dr. Jack is a diagnostic radiologist, professor of radiology and the Alexander Family Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. A preeminent leader of imaging biomarkers, Dr. Jack’s 2010 field-shifting disease model was just one of his revolutionary contributions to the understanding, research and, ultimately, treatment of AD.
In 2016, Dr. Jack was lead author on a paper that established the ATN framework, which classified the underlying biological features of AD — amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration. Dr. Jack then led the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association work group that published a research framework for AD in 2018. Building on the ATN system and the Jack curve disease model, this framework proposed establishing AD based on biomarkers, rather than clinical symptoms.
This framework was updated and published as a revised AD diagnostic and staging criteria in 2024, with Dr. Jack once again acting as work group leader and lead author. Taken together, Dr. Jack’s contributions laid the scientific groundwork for the development of FDA-approved disease-modifying, amyloid-lowering therapies for Alzheimer’s disease.
With over 1,000 peer-reviewed publications, 130,000 citations, and what colleagues have referred to as “pretty much every award in our field” — including the Mayo Clinic Distinguished Investigator Award and election to the National Academy of Medicine — colleagues proclaim that globally, no one has had a greater impact on the study of Alzheimer’s disease than Dr. Jack.
The Mayo Clinic Distinguished Alumni Award was established in 1981 by the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees to acknowledge and show appreciation for the exceptional contributions of Mayo alumni to the field of medicine, including medical practice, research, education, and administration. Individuals receiving this award are recognized nationally — and often internationally — in their fields. Read about the other 2024 recipients here.
