NOTED IMMUNOLOGIST NAMED DEAN FOR RESEARCH AT EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE


Robert R. Rich, M.D., has been named executive associate dean/research at the Emory University School of Medicine.

Having responsibility for basic science and clinical research programs at the medical school, Dr. Rich will guide the unfolding of the school's new strategic plan for research. Dr. Rich currently is vice president and dean of research at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also distinguished service professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Medicine. He will join the Emory faculty in September.

"When recently we set ambitious goals for the direction medical research at Emory will take in the next millennium, we knew the school would need an equally ambitious research leader to ensure attainment of these goals; Robert Rich is just such a person," says Thomas J. Lawley, M.D., dean, Emory University School of Medicine.

"He is recognized internationally for his contributions to immunology research; he has been called upon by public and private institutions to help guide national science policy, and as vice president and dean of research at Baylor College of Medicine, he has proven himself a supportive and inspirational leader to academic medical researchers."

Since 1974, Dr. Rich has received continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a recipient of an NIH MERIT award and serves as program director on an NIH training grant in immunology. From 1977-91 he served as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His research has focused on the biology and genetics of T-cell function, particularly on interactions between antigens and major histocompatibility complex molecules. He has published more than 180 papers and book chapters in the medical literature on these topics and he is editor-in-chief of a major textbook on clinical immunology.

Anticipating his move to Emory, Dr. Rich says, "Emory's School of Medicine is perceived around the country as a school 'on the move,' and indeed it is! It's now in the top 20 U.S. medical schools for federal research funding, and I'm impressed with the strategic plan to continue its upward movement into the top 10. I'll be coming to Atlanta eager to add my efforts to the realization of that goal."

Dr. Rich received a bachelor's of arts magna cum laude from Oberlin College and his medical degree in his home state of Kansas, from University of Kansas Medical School. He completed graduate medical training at the University of Washington, clinical and research fellowships at the NIH, and a clinical fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Harvard Medical School. Since joining the Baylor faculty in 1973, he has held a number of administrative and leadership positions.

In addition, Dr. Rich has served as a science policy advisor to the NIH and the Association of American Medical Colleges. He has served on the boards of directors of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology (past chairman), the American Board of Internal Medicine and most recently, was appointed to the board of directors of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. He chaired the National Research Committee of the Arthritis Foundation and the Research Programs Advisory Committee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He is past-president of the Clinical Immunology Society.