Qais Al-Awqati

A widely recognized authority on kidney disease, Qais Al-Awqati presently serves as the Robert F. Loeb Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. Since his appointment to the position in 1977, he has taught and supervised medical students in physiology, cellular biophysics, and the management of kidney disease. As the Chief of Columbia’s Kidney Disease Division for 25 years, Qais Al-Awqati conducted extensive research on the mechanisms of differentiation of epithelial cells, as well as research that led to the discovery of papilla-based stem cells in the kidney. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Columbia Genome Center.

Qais Al-Awqati earned his medical degree from the University of Baghdad Medical School. He subsequently completed residencies in Iraq and later at Baltimore City Hospital, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University.