Cohn Lecture

2026 Keynote Speaker

Mark E. Anderson, MD, PhD

Dean of the Biological Sciences Division

Dean of the Pritzker School of Medicine

Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs

Paul and Allene Russell Professor

U Chicago Medicine

May 6, 2026 at 5:30 PM

Dinner & Dialogue

Minneapolis Club

729 2nd Ave S, The Great Hall

May 7, 2026 at 12:15 PM

Department of Medicine Lecture

UMN Campus | Variety Club and Research Center

401 East River Parkway, Room 299

PRIOR GUEST SPEAKERS

The speakers who have presented at the Annual Lecture represent leaders in American medicine who have distinguished themselves by research that has changed the practice of medicine worldwide.

2025 Mukesh K. Jain, MD

2024 Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD

2023 JoAnn Lindenfeld, MD

2022 Douglas Mann, MD

2021 Clyde Yancy, MD

2020 Jay N. Cohn, MD

2019 Peter Libby, MD

2018 Aram Chobanian, MD

2017 C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD

2016 Marc Pfeffer, MD, PhD

2015 David Harrison, MD

2014 Inder Anand, MD, PhD

2013 Howard Rockman, MD

2012 Eduardo Marban, MD, PhD

2011 Eric Topol, MD

2010 Robert Califf, MD

2009 Gary Francis, MD

2008 Francois Abboud, MD

2007 Suzanne Oparil, MD FAHA

2006 Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD

2005 Victor Dzau, MD

2004 Bertram Pitt, MD

2003 James Willerson, MD FACC

2002 Valentin Fuster, MD

2001 Myron Weisfeldt, MD

2000 Edmund Sonnenblick, MD

1999 Eugene Braunwald, MD, MACC

Jay N. Cohn, M.D.

The Cohn Lecture was initiated in 1999 in honor of Jay N. Cohn, M.D., who served as Director of the Cardiovascular Division of the University of Minnesota from 1974 to 1996. During that time, he established the University of Minnesota's program as one of the country's leading centers of research and clinical excellence in cardiovascular diseases. In particular, innovative studies carried out to explore the mechanisms of heart failure and its effective therapy were critical to establishing heart failure as a subspecialty of cardiology and the University of Minnesota as a leading institution in the field.

The goal of the Cohn Lecture Series has been to honor individuals who have embodied the same principles Dr. Cohn fostered: clinical inquisitiveness about physiologic mechanisms driving pathology and a creative approach to disease management.

The invited lecturers interact with the faculty and trainees in an informal dinner-dialogue with Dr. Cohn and other guest panelists on current issues related to clinical investigation (the audience is CV division faculty, fellows and staff) in addition to a formal lecture presented to the Department of Medicine.

Photos from Past Lectures

Cohn Lecture 2025

5 panelists seated onstage beneath a projection screen.

Dr. Jop van Berlo seated at participant table holding a microphone and asking a question.

Dr. Sasha Prisco seated at participant table holding a microphone and asking a question.

Cohn Lecture 2024

Dr. Cohn speaks with two lecture attendees.

Wide view of conference rooms with several tables and three panelists seated on stage.

Dr. Cohn speaking on stage while seated between two other panelists.

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