Stanford Medicine Alumni Awards Dinner 2024

In the summer of 1953, J. E. Wallace Sterling, president of Stanford University, persuaded the university trustees to move the School of Medicine from San Francisco to the main Palo Alto campus. The school was moved in 1959, and was transformational in its bringing together, in one location, the resources and pioneering breakthroughs of the School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital, and Stanford University. Stanford Medicine grew steadily in national stature until it attained and now holds a respected place in the front ranks of medical education, scientific achievement, and clinical medicine.

Many years following the move to campus, retired faculty surgeon Gunther W. Nagel, MD ’21, proposed that the school establish an award in Sterling’s name to recognize a distinguished graduate. In 1983, the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association Board of Governors conferred the first J. E. Wallace Sterling Lifetime Achievement Award, now presented annually to a Stanford University School of Medicine MD graduate in recognition of exceptional lifetime achievement in medicine.

Michael P. Link, MD ’74

Michael P. Link, MD, is the Lydia J. Lee Professor of Pediatric Oncology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1970 and his medical degree from Stanford in 1974. He completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and did fellowships in immunology and hematology/oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Link returned to Stanford in 1979 to join the faculty in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. He rose through the ranks to professor with tenure and served as chief of the division from 2000 to 2010.

Dr. Link was vice chair of the Pediatric Oncology Group for more than a decade and has served as a member of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute, and as an associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He was president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology from 2011 to 2012 and is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Dr. Link is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Distinguished Career Award from The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

Dr. Link’s research interests include the biology and treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphomas and Hodgkin disease, as well as clinical management of bone and soft tissue sarcomas in children.

Edward B. Stinson, BA ’60, MD ’65

Edward B. Stinson, MD, is the Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, Emeritus, at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Stanford, where he also trained in cardiovascular surgery.

In January 1968, as chief resident, Dr. Stinson assisted Norman E. Shumway, MD, PhD, in performing the first successful adult heart transplant operation in the United States. Dr. Stinson was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1969; he went on to serve as a staff associate in the Clinic of Surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute  from 1970 to 1972.

Upon his return to Stanford, Dr. Stinson became director of the heart transplantation program and served as principal investigator of a prestigious Program Project grant from the National Institutes of Health for further work on heart and lung transplantation, serving in those roles from 1973 until 1998. He succeeded in obtaining Medicare coverage of heart transplantation as a genuinely therapeutic procedure in 1993, which led to general third-party support.

Dr. Stinson became the first holder of the Thelma and Henry Doelger Professorship of Cardiovascular Surgery in 1979; this endowment now supports three separate chairs . He retired to an active life of fishing and supporting his grandchildren in September 1998.

Joseph DeRisi, PhD ’99

Joseph DeRisi, PhD, is president of Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco and a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. He received a bachelor’s in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1992 and a PhD in biochemistry from Stanford University in 1999. He joined the UCSF faculty as a Sandler Fellow in 1999.

Dr. DeRisi employs an interdisciplinary approach combining genomics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, and bioengineering to study parasitic and viral infectious diseases in a wide range of organisms for the purpose of discovering and studying novel or unrecognized biothreats. Early work in his lab contributed to the identification of the SARS coronavirus in 2003. In a parallel effort, he studies P. falciparum, the causative agent of the deadliest form of human malaria. Dr. DeRisi continues to pursue efforts in data-driven diagnostics for infectious disease; recently, his research has focused on autoimmune disorders and their origin. 

While a graduate student at Stanford, Dr. DeRisi was one of the early pioneers of DNA microarray technology and whole genome expression profiling and is nationally recognized for his efforts to make this technology accessible and freely available.

In addition to being a Searle Scholar and a Packard Fellow, Dr. DeRisi has received the Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment, and was named an Eli Lilly and Company Research Award Laureate. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015, the National Academy of Sciences in 2016, and the National Academy of Medicine in 2017. Dr. DeRisi was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator from 2006 to 2016 and was chosen to receive a MacArthur fellowship in 2004. 

Garry P. Nolan, PhD ’89, Postdoc ’89

Garry P. Nolan, PhD, is the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor and a professor of pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his bachelor’s from Cornell University and his PhD from Stanford. He has published more than 300 research articles, is the holder of 50 U.S. patents, and has been honored as one of the top 25 inventors at Stanford University.

Dr. Nolan is the first recipient of the Ovarian Cancer Teal Innovator Award from the U.S. Department of Defense and the first to receive a bio-agent protection grant  from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He also received the Outstanding Research Achievement Award from Nature Publishing for his development of CyTOF applications in the immune system. With grants from the FDA, Dr. Nolan leads new efforts to safely study Ebola samples in Africa without the need for transport to overseas labs. He is a vocal proponent of translating public investment in basic research to serve the public welfare.

Dr. Nolan is the founder of several companies, including Rigel Inc., Nodality Inc., Bina Technologies, and Apprise , and is the co-founder of Ionpath and Akoya. He serves on the boards of directors of several companies and is a member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford.

Dr. Nolan’s areas of research include hematopoiesis, cancer and leukemia, autoimmunity and inflammation, and computational approaches for network and systems immunology. His efforts are centered on enabling a deeper understanding not only of normal immune function, trauma, pathogen infection, and other inflammatory events but also detailed substructures of leukemias and solid cancers and their interactions with the immune system—which will enable new learnings to allow for better management of disease and improved clinical outcomes.