Kevin Tracey ’83

Kevin J. Tracey, is President and CEO of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research; Professor of Neurosurgery and Molecular Medicine at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine; and Executive Vice President, Research at Northwell Health, in New York.  A leader in the field of inflammation research, his contributions to science include discovery and molecular mapping of neural circuits that control immune responses, and developing this as a method for treating rheumatoid arthritis in a successful clinical trial. He discovered the molecular basis for inflammation occurring in the absence of infection by identifying HMGB1, an abundant component in cell nuclei, as a therapeutic target at the intersection of sterile and infective inflammation.

Professor Tracey received his B.S. (Chemistry, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Boston College in 1979, and his M.D. from Boston University in 1983.  While training as a neurosurgeon from 1983 to 1992 at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, he was also guest investigator at the Rockefeller University.  Appointed Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Cornell University Medical College in 1992, he established his laboratory at North Shore University Hospital, in Manhasset, New York.  There he was appointed founding Program Director for the General Clinical Research Center, which received designation from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  In 2006 he was appointed President and CEO of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and Senior Vice President, Research for the Northwell Health.  In 2008 he was appointed Professor of Neurosurgery and Molecular Medicine, and Associate Dean for Research at the newly founded Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. In 2015 he was appointed Executive Vice President, Research, at Northwell Health in New York.

An Inventor with more than 60 United State patents, his biotechnology experience includes co-founding three companies.  He is also cofounder of, and Councilor of, the Global Sepsis Alliance, a non-profit organization supporting the efforts of >1 million caregivers in more than 70 countries to understand and combat sepsis, a leading cause of death worldwide. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Genome Center, a consortium of renowned academic, medical and industry leaders focused on translating genomic research into clinical solutions.

Professor Tracey’s honors include a Doctorate honoris causa from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden in 2009; the DeWitt Stetten Director’s Lecture from The National Institutes of Health in 2007; and the Annual Clinical Science Lecture from the Karolinska Institute in 2002.  He has received lectureships from Harvard, Yale, The Rockefeller University, The Scripps Institute, The University of Texas Southwestern, and elsewhere.   He has been elected or inducted into the American Society of Clinical Investigation (2001), the American Association of Physicians (2009), the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame (2012), Alpha Omega Alpha (2014), and is a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Tracey is Editor-in-Chief of Bioelectronic Medicine, Advisory Editor of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Editor Emeritus of Molecular Medicine.