Hall of Fame Award
Alumni selected for Hall of Fame recognition will be at least ten years post graduation and must have made an outstanding contribution to, or be responsible for, significant advancement in the medical profession, the community or society as a whole as a result of their medical education.
Hall of Fame Awardees
Maria T. Abreu, B.S. ’87, M.D. ‘90
Year inducted: 2023
Renowned gastroenterologist Dr. Abreu has spent most of her academic career focused on advancing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research, with an emphasis on identifying novel therapeutic targets with potential to treat patients with IBD.
Carl R. Alving, M.D. ’66
Year inducted: 2018
Dr. Alving is the co-inventor of the needle-free transcutaneous immunization, a technology that’s being commercially developed for vaccination by skin patch. He also developed an early successful application of liposomes as drug carriers for leishmaniosis treatment.
Thomas Balkany, M.D. ’72
Year inducted: 2002
Dr. Balkany’s research has focused on restorative hearing devices. He has built the University of Miami’s cochlear implant program into one of the busiest in the nation, restoring hearing to approximately 400 deaf children and adults.
Jamie Barkin, M.D. ’70
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Barkin's research has focused on evaluating diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to manage gastrointestinal disorders and pancreatic diseases.
Daniel Barry, Ph.D., M.D. ’82
Year inducted: 2007
Dr. Barry is a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, electrical engineer and former astronaut whose work has earned him five patents.
Rodney Belcher, M.D. ’56
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Belcher designed and supervised the building of the two best operating theaters in sub-Saharan Africa. His greatest achievement was the initiation of a four-year orthopaedics master’s degree training program.
Mitchel Berger, M.D. ’79
Year inducted: 2013
Dr. Berger is an expert in treating brain and spinal cord tumors and tumor-related epilepsy in adults and children. He specializes in brain mapping techniques and Gamma Knife tumor treatment.
Nicholas Cassisi, D.D.S., M.D. ’65
Year inducted: 2002
Dr. Cassisi has devoted his career to head and neck oncology. His clinical expertise also includes head and neck reconstruction, tracheal and laryngeal disorders, and voice and swallowing disorders.
Steven Charles, M.D. ’69
Year inducted: 2003
Dr. Charles has developed many techniques and technologies used by ophthalmologists worldwide for vitreoretinal surgery. He’s performed more than 17,000 operations, lectured and operated in over 30 countries, and written a leading textbook in the field.
John Clarkson, M.D. ’68
Year inducted: 2008
During his tenure as dean of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Clarkson transformed the medical campus, creating the Schoninger Research Quadrangle and guiding the completion of the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute and the Lois Pope LIFE Center for neuroscience research. He led the planning, development and implementation of the school’s largest capital campaign ever, highlighted by a historic $100 million gift from the family of Leonard M. Miller.
Jon Cohen, M.D. ’79
Year inducted: 2007
Dr. Cohen is a vascular surgeon with expertise in the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. He developed and refined the technique for laparoscopic and minimal-incision aortic surgery.
Margaret Fischl, M.D. ’76
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Fischl, one of the first physicians to educate the public about the transmission of the HIV virus, is credited as a heroine in the fight against the AIDS epidemic. As a pioneer in anti-retroviral research, she’s led numerous studies on HIV/AIDS and Kaposi’s sarcoma and was instrumental in securing FDA approval for azidothymidine (AZT).
Barry Festoff, M.D. ’66
Year inducted: 1999
Dr. Festoff has done extensive research in neurobiology, focusing on neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and in animal models of acute spinal cord injury. He’s one of the pioneers in studies of serine proteases and their inhibitors (serpins) in the nervous system.
Bernard Fogel, M.D. ’61
Year inducted: 1996
Dr. Fogel was a prime investigator of the immunologic function of an infant with DiGeorge’s syndrome, which led to the first fetal thymic transplant ever performed successfully. Later in his career, Dr. Fogel served as dean of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for 13 years.
Larry Gilstrap, M.D. ’70
Year inducted: 2005
Dr. Gilstrap’s work in maternal fetal medicine has helped modernize the management of labor, operative vaginal deliveries, obstetrical infections and fetal/newborn acid-base assessment. His expertise in fetal/newborn acid-base assessment helped define the criteria used to evaluate and manage newborn acidosis.
Roy G. Geronemus, M.D. ’79
Year inducted: 2014
Dr. Geronemus founded the laser program at New York University Langone Medical Center. He’s been recognized numerous times as one of the “Best Doctors in America” and among New York Magazine’s “Best Doctors in New York” for his dermatologic expertise.
David Hafler, M.D. ’78
Year inducted: 2010
Dr. Hafler is a leader in the effort to better understand the molecular basis of multiple sclerosis. He founded an international collaboration with scientists from Cambridge and the University of California that led an initiative to solve the genetic basis of MS, culminating in the first whole-genome scan identifying the genes associated with the disease.
Barry Katzen, M.D. ’70
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Katzen is an innovator in many methods of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, a procedure to open blocked blood vessels, and an expert in abdominal aortic aneurysm treatment. He was one of the first physicians to popularize the use of clot-busting drugs for treating peripheral vascular disease.
Julie Korenberg, Ph.D., M.D. ’79
Year inducted: 2005
Dr. Korenberg created the first integrated human bac resource, linked the human genome sequence to cancer, and helped improve the chance for earlier cancer diagnosis worldwide. Her work identified genes for syndromes with associated chromosomal abnormalities, which led to a genetic understanding of congenital heart disease and brain development.
Lori Laffel, M.D. ’80, MPH
Year inducted: 2016
Dr. Laffel's research focuses on preventing the complications of Type 1 diabetes. She was the recipient of the American Diabetes Association’s 2015 Outstanding Physician Clinician Award.
Stephen B. Liggett, M.D. ’82
Year inducted: 2019
Dr. Liggett was the first researcher to discover common genetic variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms) of drug targets such as receptors, which redefined the field of pharmacogenetics. His work has focused on the structure and function of adrenergic receptors, with an emphasis on asthma and heart failure.
Eduardo de Marchena, M.D. ’80
Year inducted: 2017
During his tenure at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Marchena has spearheaded key programs for the Heart Transplantation and Interventional Cardiology Unit and served in many leadership and training roles. His work in cardiovascular medicine has resulted in several patents and patent applications in percutaneous cardiovascular devices.
Aileen M. Marty, M.D. ’82, FACP
Year inducted: 2015
Dr. Marty served in the U.S. Navy, specializing in tropical medicine, infectious disease pathology, disaster medicine, and medical response involving weapons of mass destruction. Her expertise has led to international roles, including work in Nigeria related to the Ebola epidemic.
Jerry L. Nadler, M.D. ‘78
Year inducted: 2023
Dr. Nadler’s groundbreaking contributions to research—which focus on understanding cardiovascular complications of diabetes and obesity—include his work in identifying inflammatory pathways leading to pancreatic beta cell damage, insulin resistance, and atherosclerosis. One of the patented small molecules discovered by Dr. Nadler is now in clinical development for possible future use in type 1 diabetes prevention and treatment.
Andres Pumariega, M.D. ’76
Year inducted: 1999
Dr. Pumariega is the first Cuban-American to chair an academic department of psychiatry in the U.S. He’s known for his research in cross-cultural child mental health, public systems of care for children’s mental health, and eating and psychiatric disorders in medically ill children.
Roderic Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D. ’79
Year inducted: 2012
Dr. Pettigrew is the first director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health. He’s known internationally for his work involving 4D MRI imaging of the cardiovascular system.
Irwin Redlener, M.D. ’69
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Redlener has dedicated his career to the health and welfare of children, including co-founding The Children's Health Fund, which supports health care programs for medically underserved children. He’s one of the country’s leading authorities on terrorism and disaster preparedness, with a particular emphasis on the needs of children and families.
Richard Ridenour, M.D. ’72
Year inducted: 1996
As president of Marian College, Dr. Ridenour has helped the school achieve the largest undergraduate enrollment and the biggest fundraising campaign in the college's history. He began his career in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, where he served for 25 years, and also served as chief medical officer of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Marc K. Rosenblum, M.D. ’79
Year inducted: 2020
Dr. Rosenblum’s work has focused in the histopathologic, immunohistochemical, and molecular genetic characterization of neoplasms arising in the central nervous system. He has played an integral role in the delineation of a variety of novel brain tumor types now recognized by pathologists the world over and included in the World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Tumors of the Nervous System. Dr. Rosenblum’s bibliography includes more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, more than 40 invited book chapters and a textbook on the pathology of nervous system neoplasms.
Raymond Woosley, Ph.D., M.D. ’73
Year inducted: 2006
Dr. Woosley's research on the basic and clinical pharmacology of antiarrhythmic drugs has made him an authority on the drug treatment of arrhythmias. He helped provide the scientific underpinning of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST), which demonstrated for the first time that antiarrhythmic drugs can suppress cardiac arrhythmias but still increase the risk of sudden death.