WHO
Southwestern Medical Foundation is proud to award Prajwal Gowda, M.D., the coveted and highly distinguished 2025 Ho Din Award for his excellence in academics, service, and scholarship. Gowda is a graduating medical student at UT Southwestern Medical School. He will start his internal medicine residency at UCSF Medical Center in June 2025 with interests in gastroenterology, clinical research and medical education.
WHAT
In 1943, the Ho Din Award was instituted by Southwestern Medical Foundation in conjunction with the creation of Southwestern Medical College to recognize those who exemplify the unique personal qualities embodied in all great physicians – medical wisdom and human understanding. The award represents the ideals and aspirations on which the school was built and continues to be the highest honor bestowed on a UT Southwestern medical student. Among many others, notable recipients include George Thomas Shires, M.D. (1948), Nobel Laureate Joseph Leonard Goldstein, M.D. (1966), Elizabeth Kassanoff-Piper, M.D. (1996), and James “Brad” Cutrell, M.D. (2007). Learn more at swmedical.org/HoDin.
WHEN
On May 16, 2025, Gowda was presented with the Ho Din Award during the 2025 commencement ceremony for UT Southwestern medical students by Charles Ginsburg, M.D., who spent five decades serving UT Southwestern, its patients and students.
WHY
Gowda is both medically and personally purpose-driven and a distinguished bedside professional, diagnostician, and healer. Described by faculty as “one of the most detail-oriented medical students” and displaying “an honest love for medicine and patient care,” Gowda has been praised for his emotional intelligence, communication skills, and compassion with patients. After seeing the effect of housing insecurity on friends of family in India, Gowda’s passion for serving disadvantaged communities was sparked. He volunteered with the Patient Navigator Program, a UT Southwestern student organization that assists Dallas-area individuals experiencing homelessness. Through this organization, he helped connect people to financial assistance programs at our safety net hospital, streamlined access to public transportation, and secured $4,000 in grants to support a supply drive for 10 families.
As the president of the Smoking Cessation Clinic within the Union Gospel Mission student-run free clinic, Gowda improved the motivational interviewing training for medical student volunteers who work with patients on this important goal for their health.
Gowda has also shown promise as a future scholar through his involvement in research while in medical school. His research interests have included the performance of MRI on musculoskeletal disease diagnoses, such as osteomyelitis and sarcomas, and more recently, on the intersection of financial burden and psychiatric diagnoses on patients who have undergone liver transplantation. He has authorship on 12 publications, including three as first-author, as well as eight posters and six oral presentations at national and international conferences.
Multiple faculty members across varied specialties described him as one of the best students they have worked with in their careers, one who lifted their own spirits and inspired them as educators. Many speculated that they would soon see him in future leadership roles in residency and medicine. On his sub-internship rotation in Internal Medicine, one faculty member described how he artfully cared for a patient with metastatic gastric cancer. He not only managed the patient’s complex medical conditions but also gained their trust as they navigated difficult decisions.
Prajwal Gowda embodies the highest ideals of the medical profession through his exceptional intellect, compassion, and deep commitment to serving others. He joins a distinguished line of UT Southwestern students recognized with the Ho Din Award, which was established by Southwestern Medical Foundation more than 80 years ago. We are proud to honor his humanity and leadership as he carries this tradition forward.
Michael T. McMahan
President and CEO of Southwestern Medical Foundation
Additional Accolades
- For his sustained academic excellence and substantial service, leadership, and scholarly accomplishments, Gowda was selected for the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society as a junior medical student.
- Gowda co-founded and served as co-president of the Gastroenterology Interest Group to help peers explore their interest in this specialty, and he was elected by his class to be their Test Committee Representative.
- In recognition of Gowda’s humanist qualities, his peers nominated him, and he was later selected for the Gold Humanism Honor Society.
- Gowda received the UT Southwestern President’s Volunteer Service Bronze Level Award in 2023 for over 100 hours of service related to promoting healthy lifestyles to middle and high school-aged children.
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ABOUT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL FOUNDATION
Southwestern Medical Foundation is a public charity and a registered 501(c)(3) with a prestigious 85+ year history that all started with a question: “Why not a great medical center in the Southwestern United States?” The Foundation was created to rally citizens in support of the highest quality health care possible in the Southwestern US. Out of that community vision, UT Southwestern Medical Center emerged. Today it remains the Foundation’s partner and most significant beneficiary. Southwestern Medical Foundation is guided by four core principles: Service to Community, Vision of Excellence, Mindful Stewardship, and Best Outcomes. Each principle is a promise to donors, beneficiaries, and generations to come that the Foundation is dedicated to bringing the gift of better health to the Southwest and the world beyond. Southwestern Medical Foundation continues to earn a Candid (formerly GuideStar) Platinum Seal and Charity Navigator Four-Star Rating. These organizations rate governance, accountability, and transparency, supported by both qualitative and quantitative measures.
ABOUT UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 23 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,200 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in more than 80 specialties to more than 140,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.1 million outpatient visits a year. Learn more at www.utsouthwestern.edu.