C. Ronald Kahn

The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia has awarded C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., president and director of the Joslin Diabetes Center and Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the annual Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research. Kahn was given the award and delivered a lecture on "Understanding Insulin Resistance and Its Role in the Epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes" on Thursday, Dec. 13, at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.

The award provides Kahn with $100,000 to support a young investigator with a two-year research fellowship in his laboratory. A matching award will be provided through the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center to a promising young investigator at Columbia who will also be appointed for a two-year period. This year, the center named Marta L. Hribal, Ph.D., the Naomi Berrie Fellow in Diabetes Research at Columbia. Hribal will collaborate on research with Kahn and the investigator of his choice.

"Dr. Kahn has contributed greatly to diabetes research," says Robin Goland, Irving Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons (P&S) and co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. "We look forward to working with him and a young investigator in his laboratory in this important collaboration between the Joslin Diabetes Center and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center."

Rudolph Leibel, professor of medicine and pediatrics at P&S and center co-director, oversees the selection of awardees. "Our goal is to create a distinguished national award in diabetes research that honors significant achievement while encouraging young investigators to pursue careers in this field," says Leibel.

Russ Berrie, founder, chairman and CEO of Russ Berrie and Company Inc., says: "The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center has made significant advances in the field of diabetes research. This annual award will foster collaboration with other medical institutions, expand public awareness of diabetes research, and further the critical goal of ultimately curing diabetes." Berrie founded the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, which was named for his mother, who, like her son, suffered from diabetes.

Nominations for the Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research were reviewed by a selection committee composed of distinguished scientists who themselves have made significant contributions to biomedical research in diabetes.