W. Kimryn Rathmell, the Cornelius Abernathy Craig Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University, has been elected to the leadership of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Rathmell will serve for the next year as vice president. She will become president-elect in 2018, and president of the organization in 2019. The society was founded in 1908 and has nearly 3,000 members from academic and practicing medicine.
Professor Rathmell is the director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her research focuses on the genetic and molecular signals that drive renal cell carcinomas. She is also the associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the flagship journal of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Dr. Rathmell stated “I am delighted by the opportunity to serve this community of exceptional physician-scientists. I view my role as raising the visibility of this career path to allow for increased engagement of physician-scientists at all levels in the national conversation around biomedical research training, funding and translation to the benefit of human health.”
Before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Rathmell taught for 12 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and holds a medical doctorate and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in California.