Newswise — MAYWOOD, Il. – Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine Professor Katherine L. Knight, PhD, one of the nation's leading immune system researchers, has received the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Immunologists (AAI).
The award is given in recognition of a career of extraordinary scientific accomplishment, as well as outstanding leadership and service to the AAI. This is the highest honor the AAI Council awards to an AAI member.
Knight and other 2013 Career Award Recipients will be recognized at IMMUNOLOGY 2013™, the AAI Centennial Meeting, May 3-7 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Knight's primary research interest focuses on two critical components of the immune system, antibodies and B lymphocytes. She also has expanded her research to include studies on how microbes regulate the immune system and how certain bacteria protect us from infectious diseases. She also is working to develop a vaccine for Clostridium difficile (C. diff.), the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections.
Knight is passionate about mentoring students and faculty, and has written and spoken widely on the topic.
Knight is chair of Loyola’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology and founder and co-director of Loyola’s Infectious Disease & Immunology Research Institute. She has had continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for 46 years, and NIH funding for her lab totals $6,047,185. She has served on and chaired many NIH review panels.
Knight earned her PhD in chemistry from Indiana University. She was appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois Medical Center in 1968, and was recruited to Loyola in 1989. Knight is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was named Senior Scientist of the Year by Loyola University Chicago in 2012. Knight has been an AAI member since 1968. She was elected to the AAI Council in 1991 and was AAI president from 1996 to 1997. She has served as associate editor of The Journal of Immunology and as a member of the Awards, Education, Membership and Nominating committees. She also has been an AAI delegate to the International Union of Immunological Societies and its representative to the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology Board.
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