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| Vol. 22, No. 16 |
| September 1, 2000 |
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Dr. James Willerson Named Interim President of UT-Houston Health Science Center Dr. James T. Willerson, has been named interim president of The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center effective September 1. Since 1989, he has been the Edward Randall III Professor and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the UT-Houston Medical School where an annual lectureship has been established in his name. He also is Chief of Medical Services at Memorial Hermann Hospital; the Medical Director, Chief of Cardiology, Director of Cardiology Research, and Co-Director of the Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratories at the Texas Heart Institute; and the Chief of Cardiology at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. He has been appointed Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and named the Robert J. Hall Chair of Cardiology at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Willerson lettered for three years in swimming and was elected to the UT Swimming Hall of Fame. Upon graduating as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha from Baylor College of Medicine, he completed his medical and cardiology training as an intern, resident, and research and clinical fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and as a Clinical Associate at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. He is the former Chairman of the National American Heart Association Research Committee and of the NIH Cardiovascular and Renal Study Section. He has received the Award of Merit from the American Heart Association and has served as a member of the Board of Directors and Steering Committee of the National American Heart Association. Before coming to the UT-Houston Medical School, Dr. Willerson was Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cardiology Division at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Upon his departure, the "James T. Willerson, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Diseases" was established at UT Southwestern. A visiting professor and invited lecturer at more than 150 institutions, Dr. Willerson has received numerous national and international awards, including the "James B. Herrick Award" from the American Heart Association in 1993, and was named the American College of Cardiology's Distinguished Scientist for 2000 . He has been elected a Fellow in the Royal Society of Medicine of the United Kingdom and made an Honorary Member of the Society of Cardiology in Peru in 1994 and in Spain in 1996, the Hellenic Society of Cardiology in Greece in 1997, and the Venezuelan Society of Cardiology in 2000. He is a member and past president of the Paul Dudley White Cardiology Society at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Willerson has served on many editorial boards for professional publications, including the American Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Medicine, Circulation Research, Cardiovascular Medicine, American Heart Journal, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and The New England Journal of Medicine. Since 1993, he has been the editor of Circulation, the major publication of the American Heart Association. He has edited or co-edited eighteen textbooks, including the second edition of Cardiovascular Medicine, which was released in July of 2000. Additionally, he has published more than 680 articles in scientific journals. He is an elected member of numerous professional societies, including the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Association of Professors of Medicine, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He was named a "Distinguished Alumnus" by Baylor College of Medicine in 1998 and a "Distinguished Alumnus" of The University of Texas at Austin in 1999. Dr. Willerson is married to Nancy Willerson, a registered nurse who met her husband when he was a Baylor medical student. They have two daughters, Sara and Amy.
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