Medical Alumni Citation Award

The University of Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association Medical Alumni Citation Award goes to a University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health alumnus who has achieved distinction in medicine. Achievement is recognized through excellence in the practice of medicine, in academic activities and in research accomplishment.

2011 Medical Alumni Citation Award Recipient

Donald B. Kohn, MD ’82

Dr. Kohn is a pioneer and world leader in gene therapy, primarily related to stem-cell-targeted gene transfer for the treatment of inherited and acquired immunodeficiency disorders.

The disorders include severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID (the boy in the bubble disease) and HIV/AIDS. Truly translational innature, his research has ranged from the most basic questions in gene expression and stem cell biology to the implementation of at least six gene therapy clinical trials.

In addition to his prodigious scientific accomplishments, Dr. Kohn is highly valued as a clinician. He has cared for critically ill children undergoing bone marrow transplantation at Children's Hospital Los Angeles for more than two decades.

Dr. Kohn has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the H. Russell Smith Award for Innovation in Pediatric Biomedical Research, an Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award from the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award.

He was a founding member of the American Society of Gene Therapy and has worked tirelessly in numerous capacities to advance the society, including service as president. He completed a pediatrics residency at UW-Madison and did a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. He was on the faculty at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for 22 years. In 2009, he joined the UCLA faculty, where he heads the Human Gene Medicine Program.