Mayo Clinic 2015 Distinguished Alumni Awards

November 3, 2015

C. Garrison Fathman, M.D.; Bernard Gersh, M.B., Ch.B., D.Phil.; Audrey  Nelson, M.D.; and Kristina Rother, M.D., have been named recipients of the 2015 Mayo Clinic Distinguished Alumni Award. The award honors individuals who exemplify Mayo Clinic’s ideals and mission. The honorees were recently recognized at a private event in Rochester.

Garrison Fathman, M.D., is chief of the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology and professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also is director of the Center for Clinical Immunology at Stanford; co-director of the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection; principal investigator of the Stanford Rheumatology Training Grant; and chair of the Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence U19 at Stanford.

Dr. Fathman has made numerous contributions to his field in clinical immunology, including early experiments using peptides of auto-antigens to reverse and prevent autoimmunity and studies identifying the role of different T-cell subsets in autoimmunity and transplantation rejection.

Bernard Gersh, M.B., Ch.B., D.Phil., is a consultant in cardiovascular diseases and internal medicine and a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic’s  Rochester campus. He also is chair of the World Health Organization’s Cardiovascular Working Group on International Classification of Diseases, 11th Edition ICD-11, reclassification.

Dr. Gersh has made discoveries about the natural history of cardiac disorders, including coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation and many cardiac arrhythmias, as well as contributions to the understanding of interventions in coronary artery disease. Most recently, he has focused attention on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and led the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Guideline Committee.

Audrey Nelson, M.D., is emeritus consultant in general internal medicine, rheumatology and pediatric and adolescent medicine, and an emeritus professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus.

She is one of the founders of pediatric rheumatology and has made contributions in education, research, clinical practice and administration in rheumatology and medicine in general. She is a national expert in localized scleroderma, having established a classification system for morphea (localized scleroderma) that is still in use today.

Kristina Rother, M.D., is chief of the Section of Pediatric Diabetes and Metabolism in the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK).

She has contributed to revamping patient-oriented research at the clinical center of the NIDDK, is involved with the NIH’s obesity initiative and has initiated interventional trials in pediatric type 2 diabetes.