We are delighted to announce that the Regents of the University of Michigan, during their April meeting, approved the appointment of Dr. Malcolm J. Low as the first recipient of the David F. Bohr Professorship of Physiology, effective April 1, 2015. This was upon recommendation of our Dean, Dr. Jim Woolliscroft, and endorsement by EVPMA Dr. Marschall Runge and Provost Dr. Martha Pollack. The celebration of the chair installation will take place on the afternoon of August 11, 2015, so please mark your calendars for this event.
The Bohr chair is named in honor of Dr. David Bohr who spent his professional academic career at the University of Michigan. Dr. Bohr received his medical degree from UM in 1942, then served as a Laboratory Officer and Commander in the US Army, followed by training as a research fellow at the University of California San Francisco. He then joined the Physiology Department at the UM where he garnered acclaim as a world renowned physiologist. He served as a member of the Committee on Physiology with the National Board of Medical Examiners and a member of the Cardiovascular Review Panel for the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Among his many honors are the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 1973 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, both from the UM. In 1984, he received the Ciba Award for Hypertension Research and the Gold Heart Award from the American Heart Association. He was President of the American Physiological Society and a member of the Hypertension Task Force for the NIH.
As many of you know, we were very fortunate to recruit Malcolm to the University of Michigan in 2009 from Oregon Health and Sciences University where he was Professor in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and an Affiliate Scientist at the Vollum Institute. Malcolm is Professor of MIP and Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes (MEND). He also serves as Director of the Animal Phenotyping Core in the Michigan Diabetes Research Center and the NIH-supported Michigan Nutrition Obesity Research Center; and as Director of the Systems and Integrative Biology T32 Training Grant. Malcolm’s many additional honors include his election in 2011 as a member of the Association of American Physicians and, in the same year, as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. These honors recognized him as an international leader in the field of molecular neuroendocrinology, and highlighted his essential contributions to our understanding of gene regulation and neuropeptide function in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. Dr. Low also stands out for excelling in mentorship at all levels including high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, medical students and fellows, postdoctoral researchers and early stage faculty. Of note, one of his past trainees is Gary Hammer, Professor of Internal Medicine and Physiology, and Director of the UM Center for Organogenesis.
We are all so proud to have Malcolm among our faculty, and are very happy for him to receive his wonderful and well-deserved recognition. Please join me in congratulating Malcolm ([email protected]) for his selection as the first recipient of the David Bohr Chair.