The editors of the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal extend a sincere thanks to Robert Roberts, M.D., for serving as guest editor of this special issue on genomic medicine and cardiovascular disease.
A world-renowned educator, researcher, and spokesman for molecular genetics, Dr. Roberts is president, chief executive officer, and chief scientific officer of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and directs the institute’s Ruddy Canadian Cardiovascular Genetics Centre. He also serves as an adjunct professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Training Programs; on the boards of directors of the Ontario Genomics Institute and the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences; and on the medical advisory board for the Gairdner Foundation.
Dr. Roberts earned his medical degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax and completed both an internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship at the University of Toronto. With a scholarship from the Canadian Heart Foundation, he pursued research in enzymology and cardiac metabolism at the University of California, San Diego, and went on to direct the cardiac care unit at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1982 he become chief of cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine and moved to Ottawa in 2004 to found the Ruddy Canadian Cardiovascular Genetics Centre. There, he initiated a large multicenter study pursuing the genes responsible for coronary artery disease, for which he and his coinvestigators were awarded a $12 million grant by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
For more than 15 years, Dr. Roberts has chaired a molecular biology core curriculum course at the Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology (ACC); he also has held several leadership roles with both organizations as well as the National Institutes of Health. He has published more than 850 scientific articles and serves in editorial roles for several prestigious cardiology journals. The recipient of many honors and awards, Dr. Roberts most recently was recognized by his alma mater, Dalhousie University, with a degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, and was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; other 2012 honors include the 2012 Research Achievement Award from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Distinguished Fellowship Award from the International Academy of Cardiology.