Noted Mayo Clinic Researcher to Receive UB Honorary Degree

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Franklyn G. Knox, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Nephrology Research Unit at the Mayo Clinic and Foundation and holder of three academic degrees from the University at Buffalo, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree from UB in ceremonies to be held at 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, in the Center for the Arts on the North (Amherst) Campus.

An internationally know expert in the physiology of the kidney, Knox will present a special Harrington lecture prior to the conferral as part of a day-long sesquicentennial symposium being held in his honor.

The first graduate of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' joint M.D.-Ph.D. program in 1965, Knox began his research career working with the late Donald Rennie, M.D., of the UB Department of Physiology.

His work eventually took him to the National Heart Institute, the University of Missouri's Department of Physiology, and finally to the Mayo Clinic in 1971. Knox served as chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Mayo Medical School for nine years and in 1983 became dean of the medical school and director of education for the Mayo Foundation.

He was named Mayo Foundation Distinguished Investigator in 1992, and currently is professor of physiology and medicine, in addition to heading the foundation's kidney research unit.

The symposium in Knox's honor, "The Kidney Performs Under Pressure: Renal Function in Hypertension," will feature leading kidney experts from five universities, including UB.

Knox's Harrington lecture, "The Role of Blood Pressure in the Regulation of Paracellular Transport by the Proximal Tubule," will be presented at 2:15 p.m. in the Screening Room of the Center for the Arts.

A reception following the Harrington Lecture will take place in the atrium of the Center for the Arts. The symposium and Knox's visit are supported by the D.W. Harrington Endowment and the UB Graduate Group in Experimental Nephrology.