 | Dr. Robert Alpern |
Dr. Robert Alpern, newly appointed as the Ensign Professor of Medicine (retroactive to July 1, 2004), is a noted nephrologist who took up the post of dean of the School of Medicine this summer.
His research has focused on the regulation of kidney transport proteins. His early work helped to define the mechanisms by which the kidney transports acid, and later work has focused on the mechanisms by which kidney cells sense excess acid and initiate a signaling cascade that alters the expression, cellular location and function of many proteins in the cell, resulting in enhanced acid transport and urinary excretion.
Prior to coming to Yale, Alpern was dean of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center since 1999. There, he was hailed for developing the scientific strength of the faculty while improving the educational program and increasing the quality and volume of clinical services. At Southwestern, he was also honored for his teaching, receiving the Internal Medicine House Staff Outstanding Teaching Award in 1990.
The medical school dean earned his B.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and his M.D. from the University of Chicago. He served his internship and residency at Columbia University before training in nephrology and renal physiology at the University of California's Cardiovascular Research Institute in San Francisco.
Alpern joined the staff of the institute as ,an assistant professor of medicine in residence in 1982. In 1987, he moved to Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he was named the chief of nephrology and, later, to the Ruth W. and Milton P. Levy Sr. and Atticus James Gill M.D. chairs before assuming the deanship. At Southwestern, he received the Outstanding Teaching Award for the instruction of first-year students in 1999 and received the same award for the teaching of second-year students every year from 1999 until his departure in 2004.
Alpern served as chair of the Southwestern admissions committee from 1996 to 1998, during which time a court decision prohibiting the use of race and ethnicity became law in the state of Texas. He developed a race-neutral admissions policy that maintained and expanded diversity in the medical school class.
The author of numerous scientific articles and book chapters, Alpern has held editorial posts and served on the editorial boards of a number of medical journals. He has served in committee, section and board leadership roles for the American Society of Nephrology, the National Kidney Foundation, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, among others.
The dean is a member of Sigma Xi, the American Society of Nephrology, the International Society of Nephrology, the Society of General Physiology, the American Physiological Society and the American Heart Association.
T H I S
Dr. Robert Alpern appointed as
Ensign Professor of Medicine
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