Eric R Frykberg MD Lecture

It is our great fortune to welcome Allan Kirk, M.D., Ph.D., as our visiting professor, and we honor him as the 2025 Eric R. Frykberg, M.D. lecturer. Dr. Kirk, a nationally renowned transplant surgeon, is the David C. Sabiston, Jr. Distinguished Professor and holds Professorships in Surgery, Pediatrics, and Integrative Immunobiology.

He also served as Chair of the Department of Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine from February 2014 to August 2025, and Surgeon-in-Chief for the Duke University Health System from 2014 to 2024. Dr. Kirk received his M.D. and his Ph.D. in Immunology from Duke University, where he also completed his general surgery residency. Dr. Kirk completed a multi-organ transplant fellowship at the University of Wisconsin from 1995 to 1997, during which time he began his longstanding work on costimulation blockade and personalized immune management.

He advanced this work as Chief of Transplant Research for the Armed Services Transplant Service in Washington, DC, and subsequently as Chief of the intramural organ transplant program at the National Institutes of Health. In 2007, he moved to Emory University, as Vice Chair for Surgical Research, and in 2014 was appointed Chair of the Department of Surgery at Duke University.

In addition to his clinical transplant practice, he has published over 350 scientific manuscripts that have been cited over 16,000 times, has numerous patents, and continues NIH- and DoD-sponsored investigations in organ transplantation and immune management.

He has focused increasingly on the curation and analysis of multidimensional data for use in Real World medical applications and clinical decision support tool development.

Dr. Kirk was named an Academy of Master Surgeon Educators by the American College of Surgeons in 2019, and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Transplantation from 2010 to 2020.Dr. Kirk is a recipient of the American Surgical Association Flance Karl Award for Scientific Achievement, and the American Society of Transplantation Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.