Jeff Sands, MD wins Homer W. Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology

Congratulations to Jeff Sands, MD, division director for the Division of Renal Medicine on winning the Homer Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology!

The Homer Smith Award is presented annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions which fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, broadly defined, but not limited to, the pathobiology, cellular and molecular mechanisms and genetic influences on the functions and diseases of the kidney. Established in 1964, this award recognizes one of the major intellectual forces in renal physiology.

Dr. Smith spent the majority of his professional career at New York University, moving there in 1928 following a three-year tenure as Chairman of Physiology at the University of Virginia. As director of the Physiology Laboratories at NYU he developed and refined his concepts of glomerular filtration and tubular absorption and secretion of solutes. The clarity of his logic and the skill with which he explained his ideas transformed them into vivid and powerful concepts that are the cornerstones of our present understanding of normal and abnormal renal function. He attracted the best and brightest into the field, not only to NYU, but also to the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory where he spent many summers studying renal physiology in fish.

His use of comparative approaches to explain normal human physiology stands as a model for students of biology and scientists attempting to unravel the mysteries of normal and disordered renal function. This award is in recognition of those who follow in his footsteps and contribute to our understanding of how the kidney functions normally and in disease states.