by Bill Snyder
Agnes Fogo, MD, an internationally known expert in kidney disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has won the 2019 Roscoe Robinson Award from the International Society of Nephrology (ISN).
Named for the late Roscoe R. “Ike” Robinson, MD, former Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at Vanderbilt and past president of the ISN who died in 2004, the award recognizes “outstanding achievements in the field of education in nephrology and medicine.”
Fogo, the John L. Shapiro Professor of Pathology and professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, received the award earlier this month at the World Congress of Nephrology in Melbourne, Australia.
She also begins a two-year term as ISN’s president-elect, only the second renal pathologist and third woman to hold that position.
“Agnes Fogo is one of the giants of renal pathology,” said Samuel Santoro, MD, PhD, the Dorothy B. and Theodore R. Austin Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
“These two well deserved recognitions are further evidence of her influence and leadership in the broader nephrology community,” Santoro said. “We are so proud to have her as a member of our department and institution.”
“It has been a privilege and inspiration to work with the ISN in different capacities over my career,” Fogo said. “I am particularly honored and humbled to receive the Roscoe R. Robinson award as I start my tenure as president-elect of the ISN because of Dr. Robinson’s role in making Vanderbilt a premier place for the study, diagnosis and care of those with kidney disease.
“I had the privilege of knowing Ike,” Fogo continued. “He was instrumental in recruiting Drs. Iekuni Ichikawa and Harry Jacobson, leaders in pediatric and adult nephrology, to Vanderbilt. They in turn created an incredibly rich environment where I was fortunate to be allowed to do my fellowship training.”
A graduate of the University of Oslo in Norway and the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, Fogo received her medical degree in 1981 from Vanderbilt, where she also completed her residency and a renal pathology fellowship.
She joined the faculty in 1987 and directs the department’s Division of Renal Pathology and Electron Microscopy. Her research has advanced understanding of the mechanisms and potential regression of glomerulosclerosis, scarring of the kidney’s filtering units.
A member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fogo is the author of two books on renal pathology and has taught renal pathology courses at Vanderbilt and at national and international nephrology meetings.
In 2011 she received the Robert G. Narins Award from the American Society of Nephrology for her contributions to education and teaching.
