George L. King, M.D., is the Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer, and Head of the Section on Vascular Cell Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center, as well as a Professor of Medicine and Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine. After his residency at the University Of Washington Affiliated Hospitals in Seattle, he completed training as at the National Institutes of Health. He came to Joslin and Harvard Medical School in 1981.
From his studies, Dr. King has published over 300 papers and multiple books as well as holds several patents. Dr. King’s work focuses on finding the causes of diabetic complications, exploring the effects of hyperglycemia and insulin actions on blood vessels, founder of The Medalist Study to discover new treatments for diabetic complications, and understanding the reasons for the high rate of diabetes in Asian Americans. His laboratory discovered that VEGF, protein most responsible for causing the severe form of diabetic eye disease. Dr. King has received numerous awards, Cogan Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Stadie Memorial Award and Lectureship from the Philadelphia Affiliate of the American Diabetes Association, Alcon Award for Vision Research, Annual Award for Excellence in Research from the Japan Society of Diabetic Complications, Harold Amos Diversity Award from Harvard Medical School, the Chinese American Medical Society Scientific Award and the 2015 Edwin Bierman Award from the American Diabetes Association.
Recently, Dr. King, with several other scientists, has been awarded the Champalimaud Award for Vision, the largest award in the vison research field for 2014. Dr. King also received Mary Tyler Moore and Robert Levine Award from the JDRF2016.