Eric G. Neilson, M.D.
Subspecialty society names award in Neilson’s honor
The Association of Subspecialty Professors (ASP) recently honored Eric G. Neilson, M.D., chairman of the Department of Medicine and physician-in-chief of VUH.
The organization named their national award for an individual who has made important contributions to subspecialty internal medicine the “Eric G. Neilson, M.D., Distinguished Professor Award.”
Neilson, who was the founding president of ASP and received an inaugural version of the award last year, said he is “very grateful to his colleagues around the country for the recognition. There are not many opportunities like this — it is an honor I am pleased to have, particularly since it isn’t a memorial award,” he said.
The ASP, which has more than 700 members, is the national organization of subspecialty internal medicine divisions at the United States medical schools and several non-university teaching hospitals. It is the only organization that focuses specifically on providing training and educational opportunities for internal medicine division chiefs and fellowship training program directors.
“Dr. Eric Neilson’s wisdom, vision and resourcefulness were responsible for the founding of the Association of Subspecialty Professors, which today represents the nation’s subspecialty divisions and training programs in Internal Medicine,” said ASP president, Paul W. Ladenson, M.D. “ASP’s officers and council felt no one more than Dr. Neilson epitomizes the values and accomplishments that we hope to recognize with this award.”
“By establishing ASP in 1994, Dr. Neilson promoted subspecialty internal medicine, facilitated cooperation in the academic medical and internal medicine communities, and assisted accredited fellowship programs,” added Tod Ibrahim, executive vice president for the Alliance of Academic Internal Medicine, of which ASP is a member.
Neilson earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1975 and is trained in medicine and nephrology. He spent 23 years at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1998.
Over his career, Neilson has published more than 230 scientific articles and reviews, has co-edited a major medical textbook, and personally trained 46 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the American Journal of Medicine, and the Annals of Internal Medicine, along with being associate editor of Kidney International.
Neilson is a member of several national societies, along with being on the Scientific Advisory Board of Biostratum, Inc., and the holder of two patents. In addition to the ASP honor, Neilson is the past recipient of the Young Investigator Award, the Barry M. Brenner Lecture, the President’s Medal from the American Society of Nephrology, a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, and an A. N. Richards Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is the Hugh Jackson Morgan Professor of Medicine.