Distinguished Service Award
Gerald D. Abrams, M.D.
Professor Emeritus of Pathology
University of Michigan Medical School
Dr. Abrams received his M.D. degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1955. After residency training in the Department of Pathology, he joined the faculty in 1959, and has remained at Michigan throughout his career. Early in his tenure, he conducted basic research focused on the biological importance of the normal intestinal microflora. Subsequently, Dr. Abrams turned his attention to diagnostic Pathology, becoming one of the institution’s senior surgical pathologists, with special expertise in gastrointestinal and cardiovascular Pathology. He served as Director of Anatomic Pathology from 1985-1989; and, on the national level, as President of the Gastrointestinal Pathology society in 1989-1990.
Throughout his years on the faculty, Dr. Abrams has devoted a major effort to the educational mission of the institution. He has served in a variety of educational leadership roles within the Department of Pathology, the Medical School, and the Graduate School. For over four decades, Dr. Abrams has taught basic Pathology to medical students and to graduate students in the Medical School and the School of Public Health. He has served as a leader in curricular design and has earned special recognition and numerous awards as an inspirational teacher. In 2000, as part of the Sesquicentennial Celebration, a lecture hall was named in his honor.
Over the years, Dr. Abrams was elected or appointed to serve on many administrative committees within the Medical School, the Hospital, and at the level of the University at large. Since his formal retirement and appointment as Professor Emeritus in 2002, he has continued to teach within the undergraduate medical curriculum and in interdepartmental clinical conferences, and has developed a “Mini- Med School” educational outreach program for the community which has become an annual event.