Distinguished Mentor Award
Jerry S. Trier, MD, AGAF
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
The AGA presents the Distinguished Mentor Award to Jerry S. Trier, MD, AGAF, which recognizes an individual for his or her achievements as an outstanding mentor over a lifelong career.
Dr. Trier has devoted more than 40 years of his life to teaching and mentoring medical students, residents and fellows. He has a unique ability to reflect, synthesize, teach and support the individual development of faculty and fellows throughout a variety of phases of their careers. He does not tire of listening, advising and helping his trainees and colleagues and takes enormous pride in their accomplishments, many of whom have become medical school deans and department heads.
Throughout his career, Dr. Trier has worked closely with numerous of medical organizations, including the AGA. In 1985, Dr. Trier was the president of the AGA and was a member of the Governing Board from 1983 to 1988. Prior to this tenure, he served as the chair of the Training and Education Committee from 1979 to 1982 and was a member of the Publications Committee and the Program Committee. He also served as chair of the editorial board and as an associate editor of Gastroenterology. Dr. Trier has since served as the chair of the Ethics Committee and as a member of the Leadership Cabinet.
Dr. Trier has been honored many times for his contributions to gastroenterology and teaching. In 1999, Dr. Trier was a recipient of the Julius Friedenwald Medal, AGA’s highest honor, which recognizes a physician for lifelong contributions to the field of gastroenterology. As a tribute to Dr. Trier’s mentoring, in 1997, the gastroenterology division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital established the Jerry S. Trier Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is presented annually by the fellows in the training program to a faculty member whom they feel has demonstrated excellence in clinical teaching. Dr. Trier received the Distinguished Medical Alumni Award from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 2004 and, in 2008, he received the Harvard Medical School’s William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award.
Dr. Trier is a professor of medicine, emeritus, at Harvard Medical School, Boston, which he has served since 1973. Dr. Trier started his career as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin and the chief of gastroenterology at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Madison, WI. He then moved to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, followed by the Boston University School of Medicine in 1969. Since 1973, Dr. Trier has worked at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He graduated with honors from the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, in 1957, and served his internship and residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, and as a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.
