Robert Hardy, Ph.D., Professor, Laboratory Medicine, has achieved the rank of Professor Emeritus at UAB. Dr. Hardy retired effective July 1, 2020, after 30 years in the UAB Department of Pathology. He worked the entirety of his pathology career at UAB—first joining as a postdoctoral fellow with his mentor and former department chair Jay M. McDonald, when he moved to Birmingham. He served as section head of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Director, Core Chemistry for UAB Hospital since 2004. He also worked for a year and a half as interim director of the UAB Hospital Immunology Lab.

Dr. Hardy is Senior Associate Editor for the journal Laboratory Investigation since 2008, and has served as ad hoc reviewer for dozens of journals on pathology and other medical disciplines throughout his career.

Hardy managed a continuously funded research lab for 20 years, focused on researching dietary fatty acids and their role in insulin resistance and breast cancer metastasis. He served as a principle investigator on many grants throughout his career, from the National Institutes of Health, American Institute for Cancer Research (NICR), National Cancer Institute, American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association, among others. Hardy also served on NIH, AICR and other grant review committees, and published 58 peer reviewed manuscripts. More recently, Hardy focused on clinical translational research via a collaboration with Victor Darley-Usmar, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, aimed at developing a Clinical Mitochondrial Laboratory; and translational research related to clinical chemistry.

Dr. Hardy’s teaching experience is as extensive as his work in the lab. He has taught some courses continuously for more than 20 years, and was the course Director for Fundamentals I and 2 for the UAB Schools of Dentistry and Optometry for 8 years. He mentored dozens of graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows over the course of his career.

Hardy is a Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry (DABCC) and served on the ABCC for six years. He is a fellow of the Association of Clinical Scientists (FACSc) and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (FAACC); President of the Association of Clinical Scientists, and in 2020 won the F.W. Sunderman Jr. Diploma of Honor presented by the Association of Clinical Scientists.

A native of Canada, Dr. Hardy moved to the United States in 1987 where he was a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, and then came to UAB in 1990.

Dr. Hardy’s colleagues laud him for his expertise and mentorship in his career, thanking him for his leadership, expertise, and guidance, as well as his collegial demeanor.