Dr. Mark Donowitz has a distinguished career of scientific discovery, mentorship of young researchers and advocacy for the gastroenterology specialty. Dr. Donowitz is currently LeBoff professor of medicine and director of the Center for Epithelial Disorders at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

During his nearly 20 years on faculty at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Donowitz has served as chief of the gastroenterology division and director of the Meyerhoff Digestive Disease Center. Prior to his time at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Donowitz was on faculty at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Donowitz's research interests focus on the absorptive and secretory processes. Throughout his career, he has maintained funding from the National Institute of Health and his acccomplishments are well documented in hundreds of studies published in influential journals. From 1984-88, he served as founding director of the NIH GI core center for gastroenterology research on absorptive and secretory processes, and was founding director of the NIH GI core center, Hopkins center for basic research in digestive diseases in 1999 which was recently refunded.

Immediate past president of the American Gastroenterological Association, Dr. Donowitz is past chairman of the organization's public policy committee. He also served as president of the gastroenterology research group. In 1997, he received the distinguised achievement award from the American Physiology Society, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been awarded sabbatical fellowships fellowships to study with Professor Carafoli in Zurich, and Professor Louvard in Paris, and currently serves as an adjunct professor in the department of life sciences at Pohang University in Korea.

After graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in chemistry, Dr. Donowitz received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.