Office for Faculty

Left to right: Larner Dean Rick Page; Korson Green & Gold Professor of Pathology Mark Fung; UVM Pres. Suresh Garimella; Chair of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Debra Leonard; UVM Interim Provost Patty Prelock; UVM Foundation President/CEO Shane Jacobson.

Mark K. Fung, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, has been invested as the inaugural Roy Korson, M.D. and Lorraine Korson, M.S. Green & Gold Professor of Pathology. The formal ceremony was held in the Hoehl Gallery at the Larner College of Medicine on August 5, 2019.

The professorship was established by the late Roy and Lorraine Korson, both of whom enjoyed long careers at the UVM Larner College of Medicine. Starting in the early 1950s, Lorraine was a researcher in the Departments of Biochemistry and Pathology and authored or co-authored a number of papers on aspects of cellular metabolism.  After serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during WWII and the Korean War, Roy enjoyed a long career in clinical pathology at the UVM Medical Center and teaching in the Department of Pathology of the Larner College. He maintained an active and productive research program focused on the basic mechanisms of carcinogenesis.  In addition to his clinical work and research, Korson was recognized by his colleagues and students as an outstanding teacher and is remembered as one who embodied the College’s ideal of integrating teaching, research, and clinical care.

Fung earned his medical degree and doctorate in molecular and cellular pathology from the University of Alabama School of Medicine.  He continued his training at the Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine before joining the Larner College faculty and Medical Center staff in 2004.

A nationally recognized expert in transfusion medicine, Fung is director of the HLA/Histocompatibility Laboratory and the Stem Cell Processing Laboratory in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the UVM Medical Center. He has been a consultant, co-investigator or principal investigator on numerous funded research projects and co-leads a team of eight international transfusion medicine faculty researchers as part of the Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion Collaborative.  He is the editor-in-chief of the leading textbook in his field, has dozens of peer-reviewed publications, and has published six book chapters.

Fung also plays an active role in medical student and resident training. He makes educational contributions to numerous College of Medicine courses and was nominated three years in a row for the Silver Stethoscope Award by Larner medical students. A Master Teacher in the Larner College of Medicine’s Teaching Academy, he has also been the resident and/or career advisor for numerous residents and medical students. 

In addition to his research and teaching, Fung is recognized as an outstanding clinician and clinical leader. Over the past 15 years, he has taken on a number of progressively more substantial physician-leadership roles and responsibilities at the Larner College of Medicine and the UVM Medical Center, including past service as vice chair for quality and clinical affairs in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and president of the UVM Medical Center’s medical staff. He has also served on the Board of Trustees for the UVM Medical Center and the UVM Health Network, on the UVM Health Network Medical Group Board of Directors.

UVM and the UVM Foundation hold investiture ceremonies to recognize the importance of endowed positions, convey that they are one of the highest honors the University can bestow on its faculty members, and thank the generous donors who make them possible. The August 5 investiture ceremony was attended by colleagues, friends, and family of Fung and the Korsons, and featured remarks by UVM President Suresh Garimella, Ph.D., Dean of the Larner College of Medicine Richard L. Page, M.D., and Chair of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Debra Leonard, M.D., Ph.D.

Fundraising for the Larner College of Medicine is a major focus for the University of Vermont Foundation.  More than 75,000 donors gave gifts totaling over $581 million during Move Mountains: The Campaign for The University of Vermont, a comprehensive fundraising campaign for the University of Vermont and the University of Vermont Medical Center that concluded on June 30, 2019.  Of this, over $290 million was raised for the Academic Health Sciences (the Larner College of Medicine, the College of Nursing & Health Sciences, and the UVM Medical Center). More information about the impact of donors and the work of the UVM Foundation can be found at www.uvmfoundation.org.