University of Arizona Department of Medicine Chair Monica Kraft, MD, has been elected as a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (FERS). She is one of 17 people and two Americans to receive the honor this year.
In addition to chairing the department, Dr. Kraft is a professor of medicine in the UA College of Medicine – Tucson, deputy director of the UA Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center and the Robert and Irene Flinn Endowed Chair of Medicine at the University of Arizona.
A Prestigious Honor
The FERS award recognizes a lifetime of excellence and contributions to research, education and clinical leadership in respiratory medicine.
The award brings together members who have excelled in their field to form an elite advisory board that is called upon by the Society to weigh in on various matters related to research and clinical challenges. It also provides recognition to those leaders in the field by entitling all selected fellows to use the designation 'FERS' after their name.
Up to 50 Fellows are selected each year on the basis of previous research record and outstanding contributions to respiratory medicine.
Dr. Kraft will be formally recognized along with the other honorees at a reception for the Fellows of ERS, which will take place during this year’s ERS International Congress on Sept. 12. The congress in Milan, Italy, runs from Sept. 9-13. Visit the European Respiratory Society website to learn more.
A Splendid Career
A past president of the American Thoracic Society, Dr. Kraft has more than 150 publications to her name on adult asthma, the role of infection in asthma and the role of the distal lung in asthma and airway remodeling. Her work has appeared in such prestigious publications as the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and Chest. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Lung Association for more than 20 years.
Prior to joining the UA in 2014, Dr. Monica Kraft, MD, was at Duke University, where she served as chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care, the Charles C. Johnson, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and director of the Duke Asthma, Allergy and Airway Center—which she founded.
Before that, Dr. Kraft served as director of the Carl and Hazel Felt Laboratory in Adult Asthma Research and as medical director of the pulmonology physiology unit at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo.
In 2000, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, presented by President Bill Clinton at the White House.
In addition, Dr. Kraft has been recognized as a fellow in the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (2016), American College of Physicians (1999) and American College of Chest Physicians (1997). Other awards she has won include the Parker B. Francis Fellowship for Lung Research (1994-96), NIH Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award (1996) and the Solomon Scholar Research Award (1990).
She earned her medical degree from the University of California San Francisco, completed her residency in internal medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she was chief resident, and did a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.
Aiming Higher
As chair of the UA Department of Medicine, she has greatly increased an emphasis on translational and clinical research and recruited a number of renowned investigators in various subspecialties of internal medicine to the UA College of Medicine – Tucson faculty. Well over $100 million in grants and federal funding for related research were won by DOM faculty in 2016-17.
For a list of FERS honorees named by the European Respiratory Society since 2014, click here.
ALSO SEE:
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“Dr. Monica Kraft, 11 Other UAHS Investigators Secure ABRC Grant Awards Worth Nearly $6M” | Posted March 6, 2017
“With Audience of 200, Dr. Kraft Caps Banner ‘Doc Talk’ Lecture Series — Daily Wildcat” | Posted March 2, 2017
“Two New Divisions at UA Health Sciences Target Precision Medicine Remedies via Advanced Genetic, Genomic Research” | Posted Feb. 6, 2017
“Free February Doc Talks Off to Great Start with Dr. Kraft Address on Asthma” | Posted Feb. 3, 2017
“Standing Room Only for Initial DOM Research Seminar on Asthma” | Posted Sept. 8, 2016
“$7 Million NIH Grant Aims at Helping Asthma Sufferers Better Control Attacks, Breathe Easier” | Posted Aug. 11, 2016
“UA Researchers Link Genetic Variation in Pulmonary Protein to Respiratory Disease” | Posted Dec. 12, 2015