Chobanian Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award
Mass. Medical Society recognizes contributions in cardiovascular research
Aram Chobanian has a long list of accomplishments and many accolades recognizing his leadership — president emeritus of Boston University, University Professor, and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences among them. Today, the Massachusetts Medical Society will honor Chobanian’s long and distinguished career with its 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award, given each year to a member of the society who has made a lasting contribution to the practice of medicine. The award will be presented at the society’s annual meeting in Boston.
Chobanian (Hon.’06), who joined the MED faculty in 1962, has served in a number of leadership positions at the University and oversaw significant changes at the Medical Campus as its dean and provost. During his administration, Boston Medical Center, a merger of Boston University Medical Center Hospital and Boston City Hospital, was created, and BioSquare Research Park was established. He was named president ad interim of the University in 2003 and served until 2005, when he was named president emeritus.
Chobanian, a specialist in cardiovascular research, has continued to devote time to teaching, writing, and research. He founded the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute at MED in 1973, has been the principal investigator on grants exceeding $1 million annually for 25 years, and has authored two books and more than 275 papers.
“Aram, as dean of the medical school and Medical Campus provost, oversaw the rapid growth of the BU Medical Campus with vision,” says Karen Antman, current MED dean and Medical Campus provost. “He provided calm and wise leadership as president of Boston University during particularly challenging times. And despite his leadership responsibilities, he retained his commitment to hypertension research and his warm personal relationships with patients, faculty, and students.”
A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School, Chobanian has served as head of the division of medicine’s hypertension and atherosclerosis section and as vice chairman for cardiovascular affairs in the department of medicine. He is the John I. Sandson Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences and a MED professor of medicine and pharmacology, and he has been a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 1961. His other awards and honors include the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Hypertension and the Award of Merit from the American Heart Association, and the Freis Award of the National High Blood Pressure Education Program.
Two other members of the MED community will be honored at today’s event — Eric T. Lee (MED’08) and Katherine Simon (MED’08), both fourth-year students, have been named 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society Scholars, an annual award presented to two students from each of the state’s four medical schools. Both will receive a $10,000 scholarship.
Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.
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