The UNO Alumni
Association bestowed its Citation for Alumnus Achievement upon Guinter Kahn,
M.D.,
during the University's commencement ceremony Friday,
May 7, at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.
The Citation, instituted
in 1949, is presented at each UNO commencement. The Association's highest
honor, it encompasses professional or career achievement, community service,
involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to UNO.
Stephen G. Bodner, 2004 chairman of the UNO Alumni Association Board of
Directors, presented the award. Kahn is the 134th recipient of the Citation.
Kahn graduated cum laude from the
University of Omaha in 1954, earning a bachelor's degree in biology. Twenty
years later he and Dr. Paul Grant applied for a patent for the topical version
of the drug minoxidil after discovering that patients who had been receiving it
orally to treat hypertension grew hair.
Pharmaceutical company Upjohn had
patented minoxidil in 1971 as a hypertension treatment. The FDA in 1988
approved minoxidil for topical use to stimulate hair growth, and Upjohn began
manufacturing and selling it as Rogaine. Kahn and Grant entered into an
Interference Settlement Agreement with Upjohn under which the two doctors received
royalties.
Kahn, a practicing
dermatologist in Miami, since has contributed his time and money to various
humanitarian and charitable endeavors. He has been a major benefactor to many
institutions, including the University of Nebraska Medical Center. UNMC named a
floor at its Leon S. McGoogan Library of Medicine in Kahn's honor after he
endowed a fund responsible for much of the library's computer hardware. He also
is responsible for helping the library boost its resources pertaining to
medical ethics.
A native of Trier,
Germany, where he was born in 1934, Kahn also supports the Anti-Defamation
League, providing funding to send college students to Poland and Israel. The
students spend two weeks visiting various sites, including the death camps at Auschwitz
and Birkenau.
Kahn also has been a
major contributor to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, where the
dermatology department is named after him, and he travels extensively to
lecture. He has researched and documented the role German physicians played in
the Holocaust, and his speeches on the topic include 20 at medical universities
in Germany and Austria.
Kahn immigrated to the United States in 1938 with his parents and
an older brother. He attended Central High School, graduating from there in
1951 to attend OU. He graduated with honors from UNMC in 1958 then completed
his internship in Pennsylvania at Philadelphia General Hospital before
enlisting in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. In 1965, he served a medical
residency in dermatology at the University of Miami, leaving three years later
to teach at the medical school of the University of Colorado in Denver.
Since 1974 Kahn has practiced dermatology at Parkway
Regional Medical Center in North Miami Beach, Fla. His special
interests include the treatment of skin cancer, children's skin diseases and
infections of the skin. He is the author of more than 100 articles concerning
diseases of the skin.
Kahn has received
numerous awards throughout his career, including:
• Distinguished Inventor of the Year, 1998;
• Selection to "The Best Doctors in America: Southeast Region"
• Membership in the Dermatovenereology Association of Turkey for
his participation in the Turkish-American Dermatology meeting in Izmir
• UNMC College of Medicine
Alumnus of the Year, 1996
• Honorary doctorate of science from UNMC, 2002, "in recognition
of his pioneering discovery and contributions to the dermatology field."
• Membership in the Omaha Central High School Hall of Fame.
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