2021 Outstanding Alumnus Award Winner
As a physician-scientist with Vanderbilt University and the Veterans Affairs in Nashville, Alvin C. Powers, MD, a specialist in internal medicine/endocrinology and diabetes, has been a leader in diabetes research, patient care, and medical education. At Vanderbilt since 1988, Dr. Powers holds the Joe C. Davis Chair in Biologic Science and is professor of Medicine, Molecular Physiology, and Biophysics.
He is director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, the NIH-supported Diabetes Research and Training Center, and chief of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism. His research on type 1 and type 2 diabetes has provided new insights in the cause of several forms of diabetes, leading to more than 190 scientific publications. He is founder of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Medical Student Research Program and directed the Vanderbilt Medical Student Research Program; these have enabled more than 1,000 medical students to conduct diabetes-related research over the past 20 years. An endocrinologist, he is listed by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. as one of “America’s Top Doctors.”
Dr. Powers has served on advisory panels, study sections, or boards for the NIH, the Endocrine Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), International Society of Endocrinology, and the American Diabetes Association (ADA). He served as president of Medicine and Science of the ADA in 2017. In recognition of his contributions, Dr. Powers was elected to the Association of American Physicians and as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the David Rumbough Award for Scientific Excellence from the JDRF, the Banting Medal for Leadership and Service from the ADA, the Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research from Columbia University, and the Outstanding Educator Award from the Endocrine Society.
Dr. Powers received his medical degree in 1979 from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He then trained at Duke University Medical Center, followed by training in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.
View Past Medicine Award Winners