Retirement reception for Dr. Mark Koponen is June 29 at School of Medicine & Health Sciences

After 13 years at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Dr. Mark Koponen, teaching associate professor in the SMHS Department of Education Resources, is retiring.

Koponen received his M.D. from what was then the University of North Dakota School of Medicine in 1986. He completed a residency program at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in anatomic and clinical pathology and a fellowship in forensic pathology at Emory University School of Medicine and the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office in Atlanta, Ga.

Koponen is board certified in anatomic, clinical, and forensic pathology by the American Board of Pathology. He worked as a medical examiner at the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office in Atlanta, Ga., and was the deputy chief medical examiner at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s State Crime Laboratory in Atlanta from 1997 until 2009.

He returned to North Dakota in 2009 to be part of his alma mater as an associate professor of pathology, where he teaches and provides forensic pathology services for counties in North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota. He has authored multiple book chapters and scientific articles, and has lectured frequently at the yearly educational conference of the Georgia Coroners Association. Koponen has also presented educational lectures at the Minnesota Medical Examiners’ and Coroners Association and the National Association of Medical Examiners. He is a member of the North Dakota Board of Clinical Laboratory Science and has won Outstanding Block/Unit Instructor awards from SMHS medical students on more than one occasion.

With family all over the United States, his immediate interest in retirement is traveling, and perhaps further exploring his family ancestry.

He will certainly be missed.

To celebrate Dr. Koponen’s career and wish him well, Education Resources will host an outdoor reception from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29 on the School of Medicine & Health Sciences east patio (weather permitting). Light refreshments to be served.

Congratulations, Dr. Koponen, and thanks for all you do for medical education!