Barbara Kahn is the quintessential physician-scientist. Dr. Kahn (Figure 1), of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, is best known for elucidating molecular mechanisms of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance, with a particular emphasis on the role of the adipocyte in regulating glucose metabolism. To see the full interview, including her tales of going to Studio 54 with Andy Warhol, see the JCI website at https://jci. org/videos/cgms.

JCI: How and where were you raised? Kahn: I grew up in an 1,800-person community called Fairway, Kansas. The land had originally belonged to Shawnee Native Americans, and there remained a reservation nearby. My parents had moved there because they had relatives in the general area, and the school systems were excellent. My parents were both born from immigrants: my father’s father came from Lithuania, and my mother’s father came from Latvia. My mother grew up in Michigan in a town of 200 people, where her father had the only store in town. My father grew up in Chicago, where his father had a haberdashery.