Nicholas O. Davidson, MD, DSc, AGAF, the John E. and Adaline Simon Professor of Medicine and Developmental Biology and chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at WashU Medicine and a nationally recognized physician-scientist who treats patients at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine, is the recipient of the 2026 Distinguished Mentor Award from the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA). He will be honored during the AGA’s annual Digestive Disease Week symposium, to be held May 2-5 in Chicago.
Davidson, who has been chief of Gastroenterology since he joined the WashU Medicine faculty in 1998, is a leading expert on hereditary and familial gastrointestinal cancers. At Siteman Cancer Center, he also is a research collaborator in the Hereditary GI Cancer Program.
The AGA Distinguished Mentor Award recognizes individuals who have dedicated their careers to mentoring the next generation of leaders in gastroenterology. It is a noteworthy tribute to Davidson, who has consistently credited his own mentors who helped shaped his career.
“Mentorship has been one of the most rewarding threads running through my career,” he said. “When we invest in training the next generation of gastroenterologists and physician-scientists, our patients benefit longer-term from better science, better treatments and more compassionate, informed care.”
For almost three decades, Davidson has mentored more than 200 fellows, residents and medical undergraduates in the Division of Gastroenterology — many of whom have gone on to become prominent clinicians and physician-scientists, themselves. Several have served as division chiefs, program directors or department chairs.
For 20 years, Davidson also has served first as principal investigator and now as associate director of a prestigious federal T32 Institutional National Research Service Award within the Clinical and Laboratory Research Training Program in Gastroenterology at WashU Medicine. As part of the program, he meets regularly with trainees to guide and support them in the early stages of their academic careers in basic or clinical translational research.
Additionally, at WashU Medicine and Siteman, Davidson is director of the Silvio Conte Digestive Disease Research Core Center, which provides access to core services to complement research in digestive and liver disease. The core center is funded by a prestigious and longstanding federal P30 Center Core Grant.
In 2017, Davidson was recognized by the AGA as a Council Section Research Mentor for his record of outstanding research mentorship. Davidson also has directed several academic skills workshops for the association, extending the reach of his passion for mentoring.
Davidson’s own research focuses on the molecular genetics of lipid transport and intestinal lipid metabolism. He studies how the body handles fats in the gut and liver and how problems in that process can lead to fatty liver disease and some cancers. His published research offers groundbreaking insights into the epidemiology and risk factors of liver-related diseases and liver cancer.
Davidson earned his medical degree from King’s College Hospital Medical School in London and completed his gastroenterology fellowship at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. He was an academic researcher and faculty member of the University of Chicago for 12 years before being recruited to join WashU Medicine.