Krikor T. Dikranian, MD, PhD

Krikor T. Dikranian, MD, PhD, professor of anatomy in neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine, is a superb educator with a breadth of knowledge that is unsurpassed in his field. Students gravitate toward his infectious love of knowledge and joy in teaching.

For more than 30 years, Dikranian has assumed extensive responsibility for educating medical students, neuroscience graduate students, nurse anesthesia students, physical therapy students, and occupational therapy students, expending enormous effort on these activities. In his lectures on gross anatomy, histology, and neuroscience, he is legendary for his talent for moving seamlessly from the molecular to the macroscopic and from basic science to the clinical relevance of research studies.

Dikranian is also committed to teaching innovation. He was the prime motivator for the Guide to Medical Histology eBook, coauthored with Paul C. Bridgman, PhD, professor of neuroscience. This mobile teaching platform, adapted for iPads and Android, integrates curriculum content with diverse tools such as media clips, site links, study questions, and self-assessment quizzes. It is also the first iBook produced and published in iTunes by Washington University faculty. Dikranian recently received a prestigious Loeb Fellowship and produced a similar format for the Medical Neuroscience course.

Despite his extensive teaching commitments, Dikranian is involved in many collaborative scientific studies. By contributing his expertise in electron microscopy, human and animal morphology, and his broad understanding of the structure of a wide range of tissues, he has been an author on more than 75 papers in peer reviewed journals such as Nature and Science. The studies have focused on the vascular endothelium, neuronal apoptosis, impact of head trauma, Alzheimer’s disease progression, prion disease, adult neurogenesis, the neurotoxicity of alcohol and anesthetics, diseases of the myocardium, ciliopathies, mapping axonal trajectories in the primate and human cortex, and other topics.

Dikranian has received the Medical School’s Distinguished Teaching Award 11 times and the Stanley Lang Lecturer of the Year award four times. He also has received the prestigious Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Award in Medical Student Education as well as the Fogarty International Collaboration Award for collaborative studies on hyperoxic lung injury with the Department of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

Dikranian received his medical degree in 1978 from the Medical University in Varna, Bulgaria. Three fellowships in medicine at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London and University College London followed. He earned his doctoral degree in 1992 from the Medical Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria. He joined the Washington University faculty in 1999.

The Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association is pleased to present its Faculty Achievement Award to Dr. Dikranian.