BOSTON – January 30, 2012 – C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., of Newton, Massachusetts, has been appointed Chief Academic Officer (CAO) of Joslin Diabetes Center, the world’s largest diabetes clinical care and research organization and an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

“We are very pleased that Dr. Kahn has accepted this new role at Joslin,” said John L. Brooks, President and CEO of Joslin Diabetes Center. “He is ideally suited to be Joslin’s first CAO, given his world renowned expertise in diabetes and obesity research, and his respect for and personal demonstration of academic accomplishment. He understands the critical importance of our academic mission, and our need for actively advancing, attracting, and retaining the very best and brightest in our pursuit of a future without diabetes. 

Principal Investigators in Joslin’s Research Sections and staff physicians in the Joslin Clinic are faculty at the Harvard Medical School.  In addition, each year Joslin trains some 150 M.D. and Ph.D. fellows. Dr. Kahn will oversee faculty recruitment, appointments and promotions. He expects his new position to help Joslin have a “stronger interface with the other Harvard Medical School affiliates,” and he plans to serve as a senior representative of Joslin to other medical schools and academic institutions.

Dr. Kahn is co-head of the Section on Integrative Physiology & Metabolism at Joslin Diabetes Center and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  From 1981 to 2001 Dr. Kahn was Director of Research at Joslin Diabetes Center and, from 2001 to 2007, President and CEO.

According to Dr. Kahn, “Our academic mission is something that cuts across all parts of Joslin. My job will be to make sure that everything that Joslin does — in the clinic, in research and in commercial ventures —fits our academic mission and meets the highest academic standards.” 

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