GALVESTON, TX, September 26, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to name Don Watson Powell a Lifetime Achiever. An accomplished listee, Dr. Powell celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
As an accomplished academic gastroenterologist, Dr. Powell has dedicated many years to educating medical professionals in internal medicine and intestinal health and advancing biomedical knowledge as a National Institutes of Health funded-investigator. He currently serves as Professor, Internal Medicine and Neurosciences, Cell Biology and Anatomy and as an external advisor to the Texas Medical Center Digestive Diseases Center in Houston, and the Claude. D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center and the K12 Rehabilitation Research Career Development Center at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. His body of research and publication is quite extensive, filling many textbooks and society conferences with research on internal medicine, gastrointestinal and liver physiology, inflammatory bowel disease, and other related conditions. Dr. Powell has won numerous awards, and holds the honor of having the Don W. Powell lecture named after him, and the award of the Friedenwald Medal (2001) and the Mentor Award (2005) by the American Gastroenterological Association. The Canadian Association for Gastroenterology named him the 2015 Richard D. McKenna memorial lecturer, their highest award.
Dr. Powell was born in Gadsden, Alabama, to Gordon and Ruth Powell in the summer of 1938. He attended Auburn University to receive a BS with honors in 1960, and matriculated at the Medical College of Alabama to earn an MD with highest honors in 1963. Dr. Powell served to the rank of captain with the U.S. Army and served an internship and residency with the P.B. Brigham Hospital in Boston before joining Yale University Medical School as a resident. From 1969 to 1971, he served a specially appointed physiology fellowship with the National Institutes of Health at Yale University Medical School.
Following his fellowship in 1971, Dr. Powell was appointed an assistant professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served to the title of professor from 1978 to 1991. It was a prolific time for him as a researcher, and he served in numerous positions for public health and the private sector. Notably, Dr. Powell was named chief of the division of digestive diseases at the University of North Carolina, director of the Center of Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease, a consultant of the World Health Organization, and an associate of such prestigious medical firms as Glaxo Smith Kline and Hoffman-LaRoche.
In 1991, Dr. Powell joined the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston as an Edward Randall and Edward Randal Junior Distinguished Chairman of Internal Medicine and served later as the Bassel and Frances Blanton Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine. He also served as Associate Dean for Research. Since then he has served on the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases advisory council, directed the General Clinical Research Center, and served as an associate editor for the Yamada Textbook of Gastroenterology and the Cecil Textbook of Medicine.
Since 2009, Dr. Powell has led the Translational Sciences Clinical Research Center, serving as an adviser to the Hispanic Health Disparities Center in the University of Texas El Paso only a few years prior. He contributed to the civic sphere as a member of the Board of Directors of the Knights of Momus and now serves on the Board of Directors of Regent Health Care Centers of Galveston.
In addition to his published works, Dr. Powell has been elected to prestigious medical societies, notably the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been named one of the Best Doctors in America from 2003-2016. He was the President of the American Gastroenterological Association in 1992-3. He was a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (1973-78) and the 1994 Outstanding Physician of the Year Award from the Gulf Coast chapter of the Crohn's Disease Foundation of America. At the University of Texas Medical Branch, he was given a 2002 John P. McGovern M.D. Award in Oslerian Medicine, an annual Don W. Powell Resident Award (2002), the Don W. Powell annual lecture (2007) was named for him, and a Professorship in Ageing Research was established in his name by colleagues in 2012. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association.
For faultless medical dedication and leadership, Dr. Powell was selected for inclusion in numerous volumes of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, and Who's Who in the South and Southwest. He is the husband of Frances N. Rourke and the father of Mary Paige, Drew Watson, and Shawnne Margaret by his first wife, Jo Ann Beason.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Dr. Powell has been featured on the Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievers website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America , Marquis Who's Who has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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