Robert Robbins | |
---|---|
![]() Robbins in 2020 | |
22nd President of the University of Arizona | |
In office June 1, 2017 –October 1, 2024 | |
Preceded by | Ann Weaver Hart |
Succeeded by | Suresh Garimella |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert Clayton Robbins November 20,1957 Laurel,Mississippi,U.S. |
Children | 2 |
Education | Millsaps College (BS) University of Mississippi (MD) |
Medical career | |
Field | Cardiothoracic surgery |
Institutions | Stanford University Medical Center Columbia University National Institutes of Health Emory University Texas Medical Center |
Sub-specialties | Heart transplantation |
Research | Stem cells for cardiac regeneration Cardiac transplant |
Robert Clayton Robbins (born November 20,1957),known professionally as Robert C. Robbins or R.C. Robbins,is an American cardiothoracic surgeon and former president of The University of Arizona. Previously,he was the president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center in Houston,Texas,from 2012 to 2017.
Robbins was born in Laurel,Mississippi,and raised by his maternal grandparents,where he spent much of his childhood at the local community college,where his grandfather was a math professor. [1] In high school,Robbins was inspired to pursue medicine,in part due to the lack of local physicians. He later earned his first undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Millsaps College. In 1983,he received his medical degree from the University of Mississippi. [1] [2]
After receiving his medical degree in 1983,he continued work as a resident at the University of Mississippi until 1989,with an emphasis in general surgery. He then began a residency at Stanford University Hospital,specializing in cardiothoracic surgery until 1992,before working as a pediatric fellow at Emory University School of Medicine and Royal Children's Hospital in Australia. [2] Beginning in 1993,Robbins acted as the director of the cardiothoracic transplantation laboratory at the Stanford University School of Medicine until 2012,becoming the chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 2005. [3] During his time at the Stanford University School of Medicine,Robbins maintained active roles in a variety of public and professional service,including serving on the education committee for the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the strategic planning committee for the American Heart Association. [2]
On November 5,2012,Robbins left Stanford's school of medicine to work as the president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, [4] before becoming the 22nd president of the University of Arizona in 2017. [5] [6] In 2021,he was given a one-year contract extension (to 2024) and an 8% pay raise,for a total compensation estimated at $1 million per year. [7] Amidst a financial crisis,Robbins announced his intention to step down in 2026 at the latest. [8]
In the spring of 2023,the Faculty Senate at the University of Arizona gave R.C. Robbins a vote of “no confidence”due,in part,to the university leadership’s inaction regarding a violent student who would go on to fatally shoot a professor in October of 2022. [9] He received a pay raise in October of 2023 from the Arizona Board of Regents. [10] This was followed by his decision in December 2023 to enact hiring freezes,eliminate the Salary Increase Program and Pay Structure Increase for staff and faculty and Tuition Guarantee Program for students,and restrict purchasing by university departments due to the University of Arizona’s poor financial position. [11]
On October 1,2024,Robbins stepped down from his position as president of the University of Arizona. [12] He was succeeded by Suresh Garimella. He is expected to continue working for the university's College of Medicine in Tucson as a tenured professor,where he may continue receiving a total compensation package of nearly $1 million and remain eligible for presidential-level bonuses through the end of his contract in 2026. [13]
In 2025,Robbins was named a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution. [14]
Robbin's publications include more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles,spanning a variety of research topics including the investigation of stem cells for cardiac regeneration,cardiac transplant allograft vasculopathy,bioengineered blood vessels,and automated vascular anastomotic devices. [15]
William Harrison Frist is an American physician,businessman,conservationist and policymaker who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1995 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party,he also served as Senate Majority Leader from 2003 to 2007. Born in Nashville,Tennessee,Frist studied government and health care policy at Princeton University and earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School. He trained as a cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine,and later founded the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. In 1994,he defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Jim Sasser.
The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford,California,United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific,founded in San Francisco in 1858. This medical institution,then called Cooper Medical College,was acquired by Stanford in 1908. The medical school moved to the Stanford campus near Palo Alto,California,in 1959.
Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub is an Egyptian-British retired professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Imperial College London,best known for his early work in repairing heart valves with surgeon Donald Ross,adapting the Ross procedure,where the diseased aortic valve is replaced with the person's own pulmonary valve,devising the arterial switch operation (ASO) in transposition of the great arteries,and establishing the heart transplantation centre at Harefield Hospital in 1980 with a heart transplant for Derrick Morris,who at the time of his death was Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient. Yacoub subsequently performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant in 1983.
Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing,engineering or regenerating human or animal cells,tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms to functionally heal previously irreparable tissues or organs.
Bruce A. Reitz is an American cardiothoracic surgeon,best known for leading the first combined heart-lung transplantation in 1981 with pioneer heart transplant surgeon Norman Shumway. He obtained an undergraduate degree at Stanford University a medical degree at Yale Medical School and completed an internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1971) and residencies and fellowships at Stanford University Hospital the National Institutes of Health (1974). He joined the surgical faculty at Stanford University (1978) then became chief of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins University (1982–92) and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford (1992–2005). In 1995 he conducted another pioneering operation:the first Heartport procedure,using a device that allows minimally invasive coronary bypass and valve operations. Reitz also played a major role in the resident education program at Stanford,which he reorganized and maintained.
Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize laureate. He is a professor and the director emeritus of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application,Kyoto University;as a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco,California;and as a professor of anatomy at University of California,San Francisco (UCSF). Yamanaka is also a past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).
Norman Edward Shumway was a pioneer of heart surgery at Stanford University. He was the 67th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the first to perform an adult human to human heart transplantation in the United States.
Cellular cardiomyoplasty,or cell-based cardiac repair,is a new potential therapeutic modality in which progenitor cells are used to repair regions of damaged or necrotic myocardium. The ability of transplanted progenitor cells to improve function within the failing heart has been shown in experimental animal models and in some human clinical trials. In November 2011,a large group of collaborators at Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation at Abbott Northwestern found no significant difference in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) or other markers,between a group of patients treated with cellular cardiomyoplasty and a group of control patients. In this study,all patients were post MI,post percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and that infusion of progenitor cells occurred 2–3 weeks after intervention. In a study that is currently underway,however,more positive results were being reported:In the SCIPIO trial,patients treated with autologous cardiac stem cells post MI have been reported to be showing statistically significant increases in LVEF and reduction in infarct size over the control group at four months after implant. Positive results at the one-year mark are even more pronounced. Yet the SCIPIO trial "was recently called into question". Harvard University is "now investigating the integrity of some of the data". The Lancet recently published a non-specific ‘Expression of concern’about the paper. Subsequently,another preclinical study also raised doubts on the rationale behind using this special kind of cell,as it was found that the special cells only have a minimal ability in generating new cardiomyocytes. Some specialists therefore now raise concerns to continue.
Sir Terence Alexander Hawthorne English is a South African-born British retired cardiac surgeon. He was consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Papworth Hospital and Addenbrooke's Hospital,Cambridge,1973–1995. After starting a career in mining engineering,English switched to medicine and went on to lead the team that performed Britain's first successful heart transplant in August 1979 at Papworth,and soon established it as one of Europe's leading heart–lung transplant programmes.
The haematopoietic system is the system in the body involved in the creation of the cells of blood.
Cord lining,cord tissue,or umbilical cord lining membrane,is the outermost layer of the umbilical cord. As the umbilical cord itself is an extension of the placenta,the umbilical cord lining membrane is an extension of the amniotic membrane covering the placenta. The umbilical cord lining membrane comprises two layers:the amniotic layer and the sub-amniotic layer. The umbilical cord lining membrane is a rich source of two strains of stem cells (CLSCs):epithelial stem cells (CLECs) and mesenchymal stem cells (CLMCs). Discovered by Singapore-based CellResearch Corporation in 2004,this is the best known source for harvesting human stem cells.
Martin John Elliott is a British surgeon. He is presently Provost of Gresham College,taking over from Simon Thurley. Elliott was 37th Professor of Physic at Gresham College from 2014 to 2018,where he is also Emeritus Professor and Fellow. He delivered a series of free public lectures on The Heart of the Matter,"to explore [...] the challenging medical,ethical,financial and political issues of our time."
Panangipalli Venugopal was an Indian cardiovascular surgeon and hospital administrator from Rajahmundry,Andhra Pradesh,India who is widely regarded as a pioneer in cardiac surgery. The Government of India honored him,in 1998,with the Padma Bhushan,the third highest civilian award,for his services to the field of Medicine.
Margaret Allen is an American cardiothoracic surgeon and an academic at the Benaroya Research Institute. She was the first woman to perform a heart transplant and is a former president of the United Network for Organ Sharing.
John Charles Baldwin was an American cardiac surgeon and academic administrator. He served as the surgery department chairman at Baylor College of Medicine,as dean of Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine,as president and CEO of the Harvard Immune Disease Institute,and as president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
Prafulla Kumar Sen MD was an Indian vascular and cardiothoracic surgeon,who led the world's sixth attempt of human heart transplant and India's first in 1968. It dubbed him the fourth surgeon in the world to carry out this operation.
Stuart William Jamieson is a British cardiothoracic surgeon,specialising in pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE),a surgical procedure performed to remove organized clotted blood (thrombus) from pulmonary arteries in people with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).
Jack Greene Copeland is an American cardiothoracic surgeon,who has established procedures in heart transplantation including repeat heart transplantation,the implantation of total artificial hearts (TAH) to bridge the time to heart transplant,innovations in left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and the technique of "piggybacking" a second heart in a person,while leaving them the original.
Edward B. Stinson is an American retired cardiothoracic surgeon living in Los Altos,United States,who assisted Norman Shumway in America's first adult human-to-human heart transplantation on 6 January 1968 at Stanford University.
Dr. Anil Bhan is the Chairman of Cardiac Surgery Heart Institute,Medanta Hospital,Gurugram,India. He graduated from Medical College Srinagar. He has the largest experience in aortic surgery in India since he has designed and developed more than 50 surgical instruments in the field of cardiac surgery. He was one of the team members to perform the first successful heart transplant in India in1994. He served as a co-founder of Max Heart and Vascular Institute,Saket,New Delhi,Director and Chief Co-Ordinator,Cardio thoracic and Vascular Surgery,MHVI,Saket.Additional Professor,Cardiothoracic Surgery and Vascular Surgery,AIIMS,New Delhi.