Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, received his AB from Oberlin College and his MD from the University of Chicago. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine and gastroenterology at Washington University and was a post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Biochemistry at NIH’s National Cancer Institute. In 1981, he joined the faculty at Washington University, where he has spent his entire career, first as a member of the Departments of Medicine and Biological Chemistry, then as Head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology (1991-2003), and now as Founding Director of the University’s interdepartmental, interdisciplinary Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology. Gordon is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society.
Gordon is also the recipient of the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences (2013), the Robert Koch Award (2013), the Passano Laureate Award (2014), the Dickson Prize in Medicine (2014), the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine (2015), the Keio Medical Science Prize (2015), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2017), the Copley Medal from the Royal Society (2018), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine (2019), the George M. Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians (2021), the Balzan Prize (2021) plus honorary degrees from the University of Gothenburg (Doctor of Medical Sciences, 2011) and the University of Chicago (Doctor of Science, 2014). His impact is also evident in the group of 142 PhD students and post-doctoral fellows who have trained in his lab. His trainees have played key roles in shaping this field, with a number becoming leaders in microbiome science.
Award