Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jacque Montgomery 303-724-1528, Jacque.Montgomery@uchsc.edu
University of Colorado Denver Professor Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
AURORA, Colo. (April 28, 2008) – University of Colorado Denver Professor Robert W. Schrier, MD, has received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award given by Castle-Connolly, a health care research, information and publishing company whose mission is to help consumers find the best health care. Dr. Schrier’s career has spanned decades and his research practice and unwavering dedication to nephrology and internal medicine has made him an ideal honoree for Lifetime Achievement.
Dr. Schrier was Chairman of the Department of Medicine at UCD for 26 years. During his 26 years as Chairman of Medicine, the full time faculty increased from approximately 75 to 500 individuals. The annual research grants by the Department’s full time faculty rose from approximately $3 to $100 million. The house staff and fellow training programs became nationally prominent and thirty endowed research chairs between $1.5-2.0 million each were established. For those contributions, Governor Owens announced an Honorary Proclamation designating May 4, 2002 Robert W. Schrier Day in Colorado and Mayor Wellington Webb proclaimed May 4, 2002 Robert W. Schrier Day in the City and County of Denver. In 2002 Dr. Schrier received the prestigious Belle Bonfils-Stanton Award for Contributions in Science and Medicine.
Dr. Schrier has authored more than 900 scientific papers and edited 50 books in internal medicine, geriatrics, drug usage and kidney disease. His research, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for the last 35 years, centers on the pathogenesis of acute kidney failure, genetic kidney disorders, mechanisms of kidney cell injury, diabetic nephropathy, and kidney and hormonal control of body fluid volume in cirrhosis, cardiac failure, nephrotic syndrome and pregnancy. He has advanced a world renowned unifying hypothesis of sodium and water regulation in health and disease.
In 1989, Dr. Schrier was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been president of the Association of American Physicians, American Society of Nephrology, National Kidney Foundation and International Society of Nephrology. He was also Head of the Division of Kidney Diseases and Hypertension for 20 years.
Dr. Schrier and his wife, Barbara, have five children and 13 grandchildren. He grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. Although he was a 3-sport star athlete in high school, he went to DePauw University on a scholastic scholarship and while there was all-conference in both basketball and baseball during 3 of his 4 college years. He still holds the 4-year scoring average record in basketball at DePauw. He is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. In college, he received a Fulbright Scholarship and spent a year at Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, before entering medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine in 1958. He interned in medicine at Marion County General Hospital and then did 2 years of medical residency at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. In 1965, he went to Boston where he was an endocrine-metabolic research fellow at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. He served his military obligation at the Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C. In 1969, he joined the faculty at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco, and, in 1972, he moved to Denver where he became Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension. In 1976, he became Chairman of the Department of Medicine.
Dr. Schrier received the Robert Williams Distinguished Chair of Medicine in 1996. He has received Honorary Degrees from the University of Colorado, Toledo University, DePauw University, and Silesian Academy of Medicine, Katowice, Poland. Dr. Schrier is only the second American to have been President of all 3 major kidney organizations - the American Society of Nephrology, National Kidney Foundation, and the International Society of Nephrology. He has received multiple national and international awards and honors for his education, clinical, and research contributions.
Each year Castle Connolly Medical Ltd receives thousands of nominations from physicians and the medical leadership of major medical centers, specialty hospitals, teaching hospitals and regional and community medical centers across the United States. The selected physicians picked for this award all share one distinguishing professional attribute: an unwavering dedication to their patients and to medicine as a whole. Each and every one of these outstanding medical professionals is a symbol of the clinical excellence that characterizes American medicine.
The School of Medicine faculty work to advance science and improve care as the physicians, educators and scientists at University of Colorado Hospital, The Children’s Hospital, Denver Health, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Degrees offered by the UC Denver School of Medicine include doctor of medicine, doctor of physical therapy, and masters of physician assistant studies. The School is part of the University of Colorado Denver, one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. For additional news and information, please visit the UC Denver newsroom online.
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