Kidney Disease Research Updates
Spring/Summer 2008

NIDDK News

Star Named Director of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Research

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Director Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., has named Robert A. Star, M.D., director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases (KUH). Star, who has been acting director of the extramural research division since September 2006, oversees a $400 million grants and contracts program.

Star was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the mid-1980s before joining the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. In 1999, he returned to the NIH as a senior scientific adviser for kidney disease and to run a laboratory studying acute kidney injury. In 2002, he became senior adviser for clinical research in the NIH Office of Science Policy and Planning.

“Dr. Star is an exemplary and creative physician-scientist, leader, and manager,” said Rodgers. “He rolls up his sleeves, steps up to tough issues, and attracts problem-solving, talented scientists from within, as well as outside, the NIH to craft solutions.”

Star graduated summa cum laude in applied mathematics from Harvard College and cum laude from the Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program in Health Sciences and Technology. He performed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.

NIH Publication No. 08–4531
July 2008

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