Professor of Pathology
Director NKF cyberNephrology
Director, Experimental Pathology
Kim Solez is a powerhouse in the medical world who has also maintained strong interests in music and the arts, and in technology. “Focus, focus,” is the way Kim describes the need for a medical specialist to concentrate intensely and for a long time on one small area of in-depth knowledge. He has done that, but at the same time has pursued various projects and activities outside the medical world.
In particular, he has turned his longtime admiration for the great Canadian poet and thinker, Leonard Cohen, into a major annual event in Edmonton. Each year since 2002, Kim and a group of like-minded people (including his son Kevin) have organized a cultural evening in Cohen’s honour. Called Leonard Cohen Night, this ever-more-popular event is held around the time of Cohen’s birthday, September 21. Kim says the Leonard Cohen Nights are a time to bring fans together and enjoy food and music, but also a time to meditate on “being Canadian.” Plans are currently underway for a three-to-five-day international Leonard Cohen event in Edmonton in July 2008.
In 2005, Solez and others who have been involved in Leonard Cohen Night met Cohen at his home. Cohen said, “A physician with a life! Very nice.” They talked about how Kim has a “happy puppy” approach to life – the sorry human condition is not really fixable, they agreed, so you might as well enjoy! Cohen wrote the following dedication in a special edition of The Book of Mercy: “For Kim, great artist of the surreal.”
ASN Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, USA
The Macrophage: Beyond Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity
In the session: Transplant Immunology: From Transcription to Function
Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA