David M. Hume Memorial Award

Martin R. Pollak, MD

Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Nephrology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

The David M. Hume Award was created in memory of one of the National Kidney Foundation's most distinguished members. The Hume Award is the highest honor given to a distinguished scientist-clinician in the field of kidney and urologic diseases. It is bestowed upon an individual who exemplifies the high ideals of scholarship and humanitarianism in an outstanding manner.

 

Martin Pollak is a graduate of Princeton University and the NYU School of Medicine in 1988. He completed internal medicine residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in nephrology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Department of Genetics Harvard at Harvard Medical School. He is currently Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Chief, Division of Nephrology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  

 

The broad focus of Dr. Pollak’s research is to understand the genetic basis of kidney disease. A major interest is to identify and understand the genes involved in the development of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis in humans. Recently, he has focused attention on understanding the high rate of FSGS and hypertension-associated kidney disease in African Americans. He and his colleagues showed that common coding sequence variants in the APOL1 gene explain much of the high rate of kidney disease in people of recent African ancestry. In addition to his research and clinical activities, Dr. Pollak teaches medical students, residents and fellows. Dr. Pollak is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Sciences.

 

View full press release here. 

The broad focus of Dr. Pollak’s research is to understand the genetic basis of kidney disease. 


 

Past David M. Hume Memorial Award Recipients:

  • 2023: Alfred Cheung, MD
  • 2022: Susan T. Crowley, MD, MBA, FASN, FNKF
  • 2021: Paul Whelton, MB, MD, MSC
  • 2020: Josephine Briggs, MD
  • 2019: Neil Powe, MD
  • 2018: Glenn M. Chertow, MD
  • 2017: Richard J. Johnson, MD
  • 2016: Sharon Anderson, MD
  • 2015: Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, MHS
  • 2014: Friedrich K. Port, MD, MS, FACP
  • 2013: Tomas Berl, MD
  • 2012: Andrew S. Levey, MD, FNKF
  • 2011: Jeremy Chapman, MD
  • 2010: John Sedor, MD
  • 2009: Brian J.G. Pereira, MD, MBA
  • 2008: Lawrence Hunsicker, MD
  • 2007: William G. Couser, MD
  • 2006: Frank L. Delmonico, MD
  • 2005: Charles B. Carpenter, MD
  • 2004: John Stewart Cameron, MD
  • 2003: Franklin H. Epstein, MD
  • 2002: Barry M. Brenner, MD
  • 2001: William E. Mitch, MD
  • 2000: [No Award]
  • 1999: Neil A. Kurtzman, MD
  • 1998: Jared J. Grantham, MD
  • 1997: Thomas E. Andreoli, MD
  • 1996: Edmund G. Lowrie, MD
  • 1995: Joseph W. Eschbach, MD
  • 1994: Wadi N. Suki, MD
  • 1993: Joel D. Kopple, MD
  • 1992: Saulo Klahr, MD
  • 1991: Prof. August Heidland
  • 1990: Richard J. Glassock, MD
  • 1989: Prof. Priscilla Kincaid-Smith
  • 1988: Shaul G. Massry, MD
  • 1987: Robert W. Schrier, MD
  • 1986: Robert Heptinstall, MD
  • 1985: Willem J. Jolff, MD
  • 1984: Charles R. Kleeman, MD
  • 1983: Robert W. Berliner, MD
  • 1982: Prof. Hugh E. de Wardener
  • 1981: Donald W. Seldin, MD
  • 1980: George E. Schreiner, MD