The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) was a landmark study that established the current standard of care for glycemic control in type 1 diabetes. The DCCT and its observational follow-up study, the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) Study, demonstrated the critical role of hyperglycemia in the microvascular and macrovascular complications of type 1 diabetes, proved that intensive diabetes therapy aimed at reducing glycemia as close as possible to the normal range helped to prevent these complications, and helped define the modern-day clinical course of type 1 diabetes complications. This plenary session will highlight the knowledge learned about diabetic kidney disease from 30 years of detailed DCCT/EDIC Study evaluation, including the long-term effects of intensive diabetes therapy on albuminuria, glomerular filtration rate, and end stage renal disease, “metabolic memory” as it applies to diabetic kidney disease, the contemporary clinical course of kidney disease in type 1 diabetes, non-glycemic risk factors for the development and progression of diabetic kidney disease, genetics of kidney disease in type 1 diabetes, and the relationship of kidney disease to other diabetes complications.