2024 Distinguished Achievement Alumni Awards
Robin Dretler, M78, A06P
A 1978 graduate of Tuft University School of Medicine, Robin Dretler is an infectious disease specialist based in the Greater Atlanta area. In 1983, Dretler established Infectious Disease Specialists of Atlanta, now the largest private practice in infectious diseases in the Greater Atlanta area.
For fifteen consecutive years, Dretler was named one of Atlanta Magazine’s Top Doctors, but his leadership in his field has extended well beyond his well-regarded clinical practice. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, he was one of the few infectious disease specialists in Greater Atlanta. As a principal investigator on more than 100 clinical trials, Dretler has contributed to the development of nearly every approved HIV medication as well as many HCV and antimicrobial drugs. Dretler is nationally recognized for his work advancing care for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases.
Dretler has taught and mentored countless medical students, residents, and clinical investigators. He was awarded Teacher of the Year four times: once from Northlake Reginal Medical Center and three times from DeKalb Medical Center. He currently directs the DeKalb Medical Center Podiatric Residency Program in Infectious Diseases.
He has held leadership positions at the Infectious Disease Society of Georgia, HCA Northlake Medical Center, DeKalb Medical Society, DeKalb Medical Foundation, and DeKalb Medical. Most notably, Rob was honored with a 2022 Watanakunakorn Clinician Award by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, one of the highest honors that organization can bestow on a practitioner.
Dretler currently resides in Atlanta with his wife, Alice Michaelson, and they are the parents of two adult children, including a Tufts alumna.
Suzanne Topalian, M79
Suzanne L. Topalian, MD is a physician-scientist whose studies of anti-tumor immunity have been foundational in developing cancer immunotherapy as a standard-of-care in oncology. She has published over 170 original research articles and reviews in this area and is one of the most highly cited researchers in the biomedical field. She received her medical and scientific training at Tufts University School of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the National Cancer Institute, NIH. She joined the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2006 as the inaugural director of its Melanoma/Skin Cancer Program. Topalian currently serves as associate director for the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins. She also chairs the scientific advisory panel of the Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest private funder of melanoma research worldwide.
Topalian is credited with advancing the clinical development of anti-PD-1 cancer immunotherapy, resulting in FDA-approved therapies and associated biomarker tests for patients with over 20 different types of cancer. Her work is widely recognized. She was named one of Nature’s 10 in 2014, and received the Karnofsky Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2015, the Taubman Prize in 2016, the NCI’s Rosalind E. Franklin Award in 2018, the American Academy of Dermatology’s Gruber Memorial Cancer Research Award in 2020, and the Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) in 2021, for landmark discoveries in cancer immunotherapy. Topalian was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017, and to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Academy of Immuno-Oncology in 2022.