The 2024 ACR Awards of Distinction

Members Honored for Their Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Rheumatology

WASHINGTON, D.C.—During ACR Convergence 2024 in November, the ACR honored a group of individuals who have made significant contributions to rheumatology research, education and patient care by announcing the recipients of the ACR’s 2024 Awards of Distinction, as well as the 2024 ACR Distinguished Fellows, recognized for their contributions to the field. The January 2025 issue will feature the 2024 ACR Masters, the ARP Merit Awards and the ARP Master recipients.

Dr. Holers

Presidential Gold Medal

The highest award the ACR can bestow, the Presidential Gold Medal is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievements in rheumatology over an entire career. This year’s Presidential Gold Medal Award recipient is V. Michael Holers, MD, Smyth Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora.

“Receiving the Presidential Gold Medal is the highlight of my career, and really should be shared among the many outstanding colleagues with whom I have worked to advance the field of rheumatology and care of patients,” says Dr. Holers. “Rheumatology is an exciting profession with great opportunities to make a positive impact on patients today and through research to greatly improve outcomes going forward, and even to prevent disease onset.”

Dr. Holers graduated from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., and Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) School of Medicine. Following internal medicine training at Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, he was a rheumatology fellow at the University of Colorado and then a postdoctoral research fellow with John Atkinson, MD, at WashU. After being promoted to associate professor at WashU, he was recruited in 1993 to University of Colorado to be the first Smyth Professor of Rheumatology. From 2000–2021, Dr. Holers was the division head of rheumatology at University of Colorado and built a highly successful faculty group.

The historical focus of Dr. Holers’ research has been on the structure-function and biologic roles of the complement system. His laboratory performed the studies in which murine complement C3 receptors and membrane regulatory proteins were identified and characterized. Using tools developed through these studies, the in vivo pathogenic role of complement activation in murine models of human disease was demonstrated. These studies were recognized with the 2008 ACR Distinguished Basic Investigator Award. His group then developed a novel tissue-directed complement therapeutic approach that has experimentally demonstrated substantial benefits over traditional strategies and is currently being tested in patients with renal diseases.