Harrison honored by American Heart Association
David Harrison, M.D., who will join the Vanderbilt faculty effective Jan. 1, 2011, received a 2010 Distinguished Scientist Award at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA) last week in Chicago.
This award is the highest honor given to a cardiovascular investigator for extraordinary contributions to the understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
David Harrison, M.D.
Harrison was selected for his many contributions to understanding the mechanisms of atherosclerosis and hypertension.
His most recent work focuses on how components of our immune system regulate blood pressure, which is likely to lead to new strategies to treat hypertension.
Harrison has been an exemplary volunteer to the AHA over his career, including serving as chair of the American Heart Association Circulation Council and the Council on Basic Science.
He is a past president of the Association of University Cardiologists and a member of the American Association of Physicians.
He has served on the editorial boards of various journals, including Circulation Research, Hypertension, ATVB and Circulation.
Harrison is currently the Bernard Marcus Professor of Medicine at Emory.
He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigators and the American Association of Professors. His numerous awards include the J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program Mentorship Award, the Novartis Award for Hypertension Research and the Carl J. Wiggers Award from the American Physiological Society.
Harrison will join the Vanderbilt faculty as the Chief of Clinical Pharmacology, and the Betty and Jack Bailey Professor of Medicine.
He will direct a newly formed Center for Vascular Biology in Hypertension in the Department of Medicine. Harrison will also be a member of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.