January 28, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Dr. Robert R. Rich, senior vice president and dean of the School of Medicine at UAB, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Immunologists at its national meeting in San Diego in April. Rich has been at UAB since 2004.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the association’s highest honor, recognizing a deserving member for a career of significant professional achievement, scientific contributions and service to the association.

“This is a very unexpected honor,” Rich said. “I have been fortunate to have a lengthy career where I have worked with some extraordinary people. This is a testament to them as well.”

He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Immunology, the official journal of the AAI. He also is Editor-in-Chief of the comprehensive textbook Clinical Immunology: Principles and Practice, the third edition of which will be published this spring. Other appointments to editorial boards have included The Journal of Experimental Medicine, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, The Journal of Clinical Immunology and Clinical and Experimental Immunology.

Rich has served as a member of two NIH Study Sections and on the Boards of Directors of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology, the American Board of Internal Medicine, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and Americans for Medical Progress, on the Board of Trustees of the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, and as a Councilor of the American Clinical and Climatological Association and the American Association of Immunologists. He is past President of the Clinical Immunology Society. He has served as Vice President of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and is also past Chairman of its Professional Education Council. He served as a member of the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He also is Past President and Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

Currently, Rich is on the executive committee of the Boards of Directors of the UAB Health System, the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation and the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, a member of the Advisory Panel on Research of the Association of American Medical Colleges and co-chair of the Panel on Conflicts of Interest in Research of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of American Universities.

Rich earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington. He received subspecialty training in Allergy and Immunology and postdoctoral fellowships at NIH and Harvard Medical School.

In 1973, Rich joined the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine. In 1978 he was promoted to Professor and in 1995 was named Distinguished Service Professor. He was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1977 to 1991. From 1990 to 1998, he also served as Vice President and Dean of Research at Baylor. From 1998 to 2004 he was Executive Associate Dean for Research and Strategic Initiatives at Emory University School of Medicine.