Call for Nomination for the George M. Kober Medal and Lecture

Brief History on George M. Kober

George M. Kober

Nominations for the George M. Kober Medal for 2025 are being accepted until December 15, 2023. Please provide a brief cover letter highlighting the major accomplishments of the nominees along with an updated CV and submit to Lori.Ennis@aap-online.org.

George M. Kober was a Prussian Immigrant who crossed the Atlantic alone at the age of 16. He lived with his sister in New York until he joined the Army and worked as an orderly until he was assigned to work in Washington at the Library of the Army Surgeon General, just down the street from Ford’s Theater. He attended Georgetown School of Medicine in night school and graduated in the late 1873. He was passionate about public health and prevention and wrote and published while pursuing a career in the US Army Medical Corps, a precursor of the early Public Health Service in California. He was stationed on Alcatraz and allegedly he also invested wisely in gold mining stocks and accumulated personal wealth. He returned to Washington for the centennial Celebration of the University in 1889 and vowed to do good things in his life for his Alma Mater and public health. That would have been approximately his 15th reunion. Dr. Kober became dean of the Georgetown School of Medicine in 1901, in which capacity he served until 1928, marking the longest tenure in the history of the deanship at the time.

He was active in the early days as a leader of several national organizations including the Association of American Physicians – an early organization founded in the 1885 by seven Physicians (including William Osler) an organization which promotes:

“the pursuit of medical knowledge, and the advancement through experimentation and discovery of basic and clinical science and their application to clinical medicine…”

That organization honored Kober and continues to honor him by giving their highest award to an honoree(s) every three years with the Kober Lecture and the Kober Medal every year that is minted for them. Those speakers have included at least 13 Nobel laureates to date. The first Kober Medal was presented at the Annual Meeting in 1925.
Kober also was active in the early AAMC and the Council of Medical Education at the AMA- Where he chaired a committee that advised to visit all medical schools and standardize the curriculum.

GEORGE M. KOBER LECTURE ELIGIBILITY
This award is given to an AAP member for outstanding research contributions which have extraordinary impact on patients. This award is given every three years.

GEORGE M. KOBER MEDAL ELIGIBILITY
This award is given to an AAP member whose lifetime efforts have had an enormous impact on the field of Internal Medicine (or the specific member’s discipline) through the scientific discipline they have brought to the field and the many outstanding scientists that they have trained. This award is given every year.

GEORGE M. KOBER LECTURESHIP

  • 1925: John J. Abel, Baltimore
  • 1928: Simon Flexner, New York
  • 1931: F.G. Novy, Ann Arbor
  • 1934: W.B. Cannon, Boston
  • 1937: Ludvig Hektoen, Chicago
  • 1940: W.G. MacCallum, Baltimore
  • 1943: Eugene L. Opie, New York
  • 1946: Peyton Rous, New York
  • 1949: Homer F. Swift, New York
  • 1952: Arthur L. Bloomfield, San Francisco
  • 1955: J.H. Means, Boston
  • 1958: Homer W. Smith, New York
  • 1961: Rene J. Dubos, New York
  • 1964: Frank L. Horsfall, Jr., New York
  • 1967: Francis D. Lukens, Pittsburgh
  • 1970: Robert A. Good, Minneapolis
  • 1973: Lewis Thomas, New York
  • 1977: Arno G. Motulsky, Seattle
  • 1980: Grant W. Liddle, Nashville
  • 1982: Bengt Samuelsson, Stockhom
  • 1985: Oscar D. Ratnoff, Cleveland
  • 1988: Anthony S. Fauci, Bethesda
  • 1991: Philip W. Majerus, St. Louis
  • 1994: Bert Voeglstein, Baltimore
  • 1997: Mark Keating, Salt Lake City
  • 2000: Francis Collins, Bethesda
  • 2003: Stanley Korsmeyer, Boston
  • 2006: Robert Lefkowitz, Durham
  • 2009: Michael Welsh, Iowa City
  • 2012: Barry S. Coller, New York
  • 2015: P. Frederick Sparling, Chapel Hill
  • 2018: Helen H. Hobbs, Dallas
  • 2021:  Jean Bennett, Pennsylvania
  • 2024: David Ginsburg, Ann Arbor

GEORGE M. KOBER MEDAL

2024Daniel L. KastnerJohn O’Shea
2023Richard P. LiftonMitchell A. Lazar
2022Linda P. FriedAnne Newman
2021Jeffrey I. GordonDavid Perlmutter
2020Michael J. WelshJoseph Zabner
2019C. Ronald KahnJeffrey S. Flier
2018Stuart H. OrkinLeonard I. Zon
2017Laurie H. GlimcherCarl F. Nathan
2016Peter AgrePaul B. Rothman
2015Francis CollinsDavid Ginsburg
2014Eliabeth G. NabelEugene Braunwald
2013John T. Potts, Jr.J. Larry Jameson
2012Arthur H. RubensteinKenneth Polonsky
2011Robert LefkowitzRalph Snyderman
2010Stuart KornfeldAjit Varki
2009Francois AbboudMichael Welsh
2008Samuel O. ThierDennis Ausiello
2007Anthony FauciJohn I. Gallin
2006David NathanEdward J. Benz, Jr.
2005William KelleyEdward Holmes
2004K. Frank AustenJeffrey M. Drazen
2003Leon E. RosenbergIrwin Rosenberg
2002Michael BrownJean Wilson
2002Joseph GoldsteinDaniel Foster
2001Kurt J. IsselbacherEugene Braunwald
2000J. Claude BennettHolly Smith
1999Jean WilsonJoel Goldstein
1998Eugene BraunwaldVictor Dzau
1997Helen RanneySamual Rappaport
1996Robert PetersdorfEdward W. Hook, Jr.
1995Alexander LeafArnold Relman
1994David M. KipnisWilliam A. Peck
1993Arnold S. RelmanSamuel O. Thier
1992E. Donnall ThomasErnest Beutler
1991James B. WyngaardenLloyd H. Smith, Jr.
1990Victor A. McKusickProfessor Sir David Weatherall
1989Maclyn McCartyRichard M. Krause
1988Oscar D. RatnoffJohn W. Harris
1987Helen B. Taussig
1986Lloyd H. Smith, Jr.Marvin H. Sleisenger
1985Donald W. Seldin
1984Robert W. BerlinerJack Orloff
1983Lewis ThomasH. Sherwood Lawrence
1982James A. ShannonSaul Farber
1981A. McGehee HarveyRichard J. Johns
1980Eugene A. SteadJames V. Warren
1979Franz J. Ingelfinger
1978Maxwell Finland
1977Robert H. Williams
1976George W. Thorn
1975Walsh McDermott
1974Maxwell M. Wintrobe
1973Paul B. Beeson
1972Cecil J. Watson
1971W. Barry Wood, Jr.
1970Dickinson W. Richards
1969Dana W. Atchley
1968Tinsley R. Harrison
1967Isaac Starr
1966Joseph C. Aub
1965Joseph T. Wearn
1964J. Howard Means
1963Jhn R. Paul
1962William B. Castle
1961O.H. Robertson
1960David Marine
1959Robert F. Loeb
1958Arnold R. Rich
1957Richard E. Shope
1956Stanley Cobb
1955William C. Stadie
1954Herbert S. Gasser
1953Peyton Rous
1952Edward C. Kendall
1951James L. Gamble
1950Edwards A. Park
1949Alphonse R. Dochez
1948Warfield T. Longcope
1947Eugene F. DuBois
1946No Award
1945Oswald T. Avery
1944No Award
1943Ernest W. Goodpasture
1942Donald D. Van Slyke
1941William de B. MacNider
1940Frederick F. Russell
1939George H Whipple
1938Rufus Cole
1937William H. Park
1936E.R. Baldwin
1935Frank B Mallory
1934J.J. Abel
1933A.N. Richards
1932E.P. Joslin
1931Henry Sewall
1930James B. Herrick
1929George R. Minot