Distinguished Professor/Former Dean, Michael Dunn, Receives Medical College of Wisconsin’s Highest Faculty Honor, May 16

May 12 - Michael J. Dunn, M.D., Dean Emeritus of the Medical College of Wisconsin, will be honored with a Distinguished Service Award, the school’s highest faculty honor, at its 95th annual commencement exercises, May 16, at the Milwaukee Theater. He is being honored for his transformative leadership and his unwavering commitment to excellence.

Dr. Dunn will continue to serve as distinguished professor of medicine and physiology, and director of the Translational Research Resources Office of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the Medical College.

During his 13-year tenure as dean, which ended earlier this month, the Medical College’s research support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grew from $26 million to $92.3 million, a 255 percent increase. He has appointed all of the Medical College’s senior associate deans and center directors, as well as 22 academic department chairmen. Under his leadership, the College has also established five new departments: Biophysics, Plastic Surgery, Population Health, Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, and Urology.

Dr. Dunn has published more than 200 scientific papers and authored or co-authored 50 chapters and textbooks in medicine and physiology. He received continuous funding from the NIH from 1970 to 2005, and was one of the nation’s only medical school deans to concurrently hold NIH research grants and actively conduct research.

He was appointed Hanna Payne professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1977, and began his academic career at the University of Vermont College of Medicine as an assistant professor of medicine in 1969. He spent three years of military duty as a research internist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 1966 to 1969.

Dr. Dunn received his medical degree from the Medical College’s predecessor institution, Marquette University School of Medicine, in 1962.