International pulmonary and critical care researcher Edward Abraham, MD, has been named chair of the Department of Medicine at UAB's School of Medicine. Dr. Abraham, 53, is head of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine and vice chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and its Health Sciences Center.

He will assume UAB duties on March 1, 2006, when he succeeds William J. Koopman, MD, UAB Distinguished Professor and Chairman Emeritus, who stepped down in July as departmental chair.

"The invitation to join such a great department and institution is a unique opportunity," Dr. Abraham says. "Because of the strengths in the faculty, health care system, and institution, UAB's Department of Medicine is one of the few in the nation positioned to take full advantage of recent advances in medical science and bring these discoveries to the bedsides of our patients.

"UAB's Department of Medicine has a wonderful tradition of excellence in all aspects of academic medicine — including research, education, and clinical care," he continues. "Few such departments are as strong and 'well balanced' in so many areas. The faculty is absolutely outstanding and the leadership has been inspired."

Fulbright Fellow, pulmonary researcher

A former Fulbright Fellow who spent 2 years at the Pasteur Institute in Paris before gaining prominence on the faculties of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Colorado, where he has been since 1993, Dr. Abraham has devoted his academic career to elucidating the mechanisms responsible for inflammatory lung injury and organ system failure in patients with critical illness, such as overwhelming infections.

"Dr. Abraham brings a wealth of academic distinction to UAB's largest department," Robert Rich, MD, vice president and dean of the School of Medicine, says. "Under Ed Abraham's leadership, an already extraordinarily accomplished department will ascend to even greater heights as it continues to make many fine contributions to medical research, teaching, and clinical care for the benefit of Alabamians and others throughout the region, the nation, and the world."

Dr. Abraham received his undergraduate degree, with honors, and his medical degree from Stanford University. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles and, subsequently, fellowships there in emergency and critical care medicine.

He is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Thoracic Society, the American Association of Immunologists, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine, among others.

His numerous professional activities include editorship of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and associate editorship of the Journal of Immunology. He is a member of the editorial boards of Critical Care Medicine, Critical Care, Intensive Care Medicine, Advances in Sepsis, and WebMD/Medscape Pulmonary Medicine. He also serves on key national panels of the National Institutes of Health, including the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Author of more than 250 research papers and editorials and six books, including Emergency Management of Critical Illness (1986) and The Textbook of Critical Care (5th Edition, 2005), he is a frequent speaker at international medical meetings.