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Dr. Kahn received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Louisville. After training in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital/Washington University, he moved to the National Institutes of Health as a Clinical Associate in the Endocrinology Branch. Over the next 11 years, Dr. Kahn rose to become the Head of the Section on Cellular and Molecular Physiology of the Diabetes Branch of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. In 1981, Dr. Kahn moved to Boston to become Research Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1984, he became Professor of Medicine at Harvard, and in 1986 was awarded the Mary K. Iacocca Professorship. During his tenure, Joslin's research program grew from $2 million to over $25 million, with a staff of over 200 people. In 1998, he was named Executive Vice President and, in 2000, President and Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center.

Dr. Kahn is the preeminent investigator of insulin signal transduction and mechanisms of altered signaling in disease. His laboratory has produced multiple seminal observations regarding the insulin receptor kinase, its substrates, the molecular components of the insulin signaling network, and their alterations in disease. This body of work has revolutionized the field. Since the initial discovery by Dr. Kahn's laboratory that the insulin receptor is an insulin-stimulated enzyme with protein tyrosine kinase activity, the Kahn laboratory has focused attention on how this early signal is converted to the final effects of insulin on metabolism and growth, how insulin signaling is altered in insulin resistant states such as type 2 diabetes, what the impact of genetics is on these functions, and how knowledge gleaned through these studies can be translated into new treatment methods for diabetes patients.

Dr. Kahn has received numerous honors and awards, including the highest scientific awards of the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, International Diabetes Federation, the American Federation of Clinical Research, and the Endocrine Society of the U.S., as well as the Berson Lecture Award of the American Society of Physiology, the Hamdan Award for Medical Research, the Rolf Luft Award of the Karolinska University and numerous honorary lectureships. Dr. Kahn has served on many national commissions and advisory boards, including as chairman of the Congressionally-established Diabetes Research Working Group. This group developed a research plan for diabetes at a national level that has resulted in a major increase in both the number of diabetes research programs and NIH funding for these initiatives. Dr. Kahn has also served as President of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and on the Editorial Boards of multiple journals. In 1999, Dr. Kahn received two prestigious national honors - election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences and election to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine - for his distinguished achievements in original research. Dr. Kahn also holds honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Paris, University of Louisville and University of Geneva.