The Duke Department of Medicine each year recognizes individuals who have made notable impacts that move medicine forward and have created sustained legacies that help share our institution.
The 2025 Career Achievement Award recognizes faculty members whose careers at Duke have achieved extraordinary impact in one of the three core missions of the School of Medicine: education, research, or clinical medicine.
Awardees have made an impact in clinical excellence and dedicated serve to patient-centered care, outstanding contributions to research, excellence in teaching and/or mentoring, and advancing systems of care, promoting a culture of safety, and improving efficiencies.
Meet the 2025 Career Achievement Awardees
Rodger A. Liddle, MD
Professor, Gastroenterology
Dr. Liddle is recognized for his strong record of service to Duke medicine as a person of outstanding character who has served as a role model to many trainees and faculty. He has made substantial contributions in two major areas of investigation: gut hormones and pancreatic biology. Working with Dr. Diego Bohórquez, they discovered that enteroendocrine cells communicate with the nervous system. This discovery has led to several lines of investigation with collaborators across the world.
Virginia Byers Kraus, MD, PhD
Mary Bernheim Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Rheumatology and Immunology
Dr. Krause has served on the Duke faculty for 34 years. She is an international leader in osteoarthritis, combining her training in molecular biology and rheumatology to identify the physiologic, microbiome, and inflammatory causes for the condition. Some of her most exciting recent work includes the discovery of a predictive biomarker that identifies knee osteoarthritis up to eight years prior to clinical signs or symptoms. Dr. Kraus is a key charter faculty member of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute and one of its most distinguished members. She fosters a climate of collaboration where every voice is heard and each idea is valued, her nominators noted.
Stephen Smith, MD
Professor, Nephrology
Dr. Smith is recognized as a paragon of professionalism, ethics, empathy and inclusiveness, an expert clinician who blends voluminous knowledge with humility, level-headedness, and a common-sense pragmatism and deep confidence gleaned from years of experience caring for patients and their families. Those who have learned from him have tried to emulate his distinctive virtues of grace, integrity, honesty, and superb work ethic. What truly sets Dr. Smith apart, colleagues said, is his remarkable skill in understanding the vision of the clinical mission, his unwavering belief in the contributions that each of us brings to the table, and his ability to see the big picture, always patient-centered.