David P. Hajjar, professor of biochemistry and pathology, has been named dean of the Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.
While serving as dean, Hajjar will continue to serve as director of Cornell's Center of Vascular Biology and as director of four major National Institutes of Health grants for research and training in vascular biology.
"Cornell is extremely fortunate to have a scientist and administrator of Dr. Hajjar's talent and accomplishments as the leader of the Graduate School of Medical Sciences," said Cornell President Hunter Rawlings.
"Both the Medical College and the Graduate School of Medical Sciences are poised to make major contributions in an exciting new era of medical education, health-care delivery and discovery and education in the biomedical sciences," said Dr. Antonio Gotto Jr., provost and dean of Cornell Medical College. "I look forward to working with Dr. Hajjar as we begin to implement the Strategic Plan for Research, which is critically important to maintaining scientific excellence at both schools."
The student body in the graduate school's Ph.D. program currently numbers 222, including 38 students in this year's entering class. Last year, the school inaugurated a program awarding the master of science degree in clinical epidemiology and health services research.
"Cornell's Graduate School of Medical Sciences has an outstanding faculty and an excellent student body," Hajjar said. "My primary objectives as dean will be to improve our curriculum, establish an endowment for the school, improve our admissions efforts to recruit the best and the brightest students, and upgrade the social and living conditions of our students. My goal is to place our school in the top 10 in the United States."
Hajjar has been associated with Cornell Medical College since 1978, when he joined the department of pathology as a research associate after receiving his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire. In 1979 he began a postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at Rockefeller University, after which, in 1981, he was appointed assistant professor of pathology and biochemistry at Cornell. When he became a full professor in 1989, at the age of 36, he was one of the youngest tenured full professors in the history of the medical college.
In 1991 Hajjar received the prestigious Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Award in recognition of his research in experimental biology. The award, which is administered by the American Association of Pathologists/Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, recognized Hajjar for his investigations of the role of viral infections, notably herpes-virus infection, on the development of atherosclerosis.
Hajjar's current research focuses on defining the biochemical signaling processes associated with arterial lipoprotein receptor activation and cholesterol trafficking. He is the director of a newly awarded SCOR (Specialized Center of Research) grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for a five-year interdisciplinary research initiative in molecular medicine and atherosclerosis. Hajjar also directs an NIH Program Project Grant in Vascular Cell Signalling and an NIH Training Grant in Vascular Biochemistry. In addition, he has been awarded four consecutive (1985-1998) Research Project Grants from the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Currently, his NIH funding totals approximately $15 million.