UM School of Medicine's Dr. Karen Kotloff Receives 2019 Alumni Achievement Award from Temple University

Karen Kotloff, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), has received the 2019 Alumni Achievement Award from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.

This award, which was presented on May 4, recognizes alumni whose contributions to medicine have had a lasting impact. Dr. Kotloff, who is Head of UMSOM’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine and an Associate Director in UMSOM’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD), is a world-renowned physician and clinical researcher.

“Dr. Kotloff has had a long and distinguished career in pediatric infectious diseases, and she has been instrumental in advancing vaccines and therapies for the most important causes of disease in children throughout the world.,” said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and The John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.

Dr. Kotloff has spent her entire 30-year career at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she has made fundamental, innovative contributions to research on infectious diseases and childhood and adult vaccines. In developing countries, Dr. Kotloff has conducted vaccine trials as well as large, complex epidemiologic studies to evaluate diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, other vaccine-preventable diseases, and child mortality. In 2001, she helped to establish a field site in Bamako, Mali to study the epidemiology of infectious diseases and their prevention through vaccination. In recognition of this work, she was awarded Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mali (Knight of the National Order of Mali) in 2005 by the President of Mali.

“Dr. Kotloff is a superb scientist, an international leader in the field of vaccinology and pediatric infectious diseases, and a tireless champion for access to vaccines and children’s health around the globe,” said Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD). “Her research excellence has led to an international reputation, as evidenced by her membership on prestigious national and international committees and her invitations to speak around the globe.”

In addition to her own research, Dr. Kotloff has supported and advanced the careers of dozens of students and post-doctoral trainees here at UMSOM and internationally. Her impact on public health has been multiplied by the physicians and scientists whom she has mentored and trained in these disciplines over the past few decades.

Dr. Kotloff received her BA Degree in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. She received her MD Degree from Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and completed her residency at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, before coming to UMSOM to complete her Fellowship in infectious diseases.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 43 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs; and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished recipient of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research.  With an operating budget of more than $1 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically based care for more than 1.2 million patients each year. The School has over 2,500 students, residents, and fellows, and more than $530 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total workforce of nearly 7,000 individuals. The combined School and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of nearly $6 billion and an economic impact more than $15 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine faculty, which ranks as the 8^th highest among public medical schools in research productivity, is an innovator in translational medicine, with 600 active patents and 24 start-up companies. The School works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu.