Double Impact

Thomas Andreoli and Robert Luke Honored in Nephrology

As of 2007, UAB’s Nephrology Research and Training Center had extended more than 7,500 lives through kidney transplants. Only one other center in the country can make this claim. Fund-raising efforts are under way for two chairs in the Division of Nephrology that will honor physicians who were instrumental in raising UAB’s kidney transplant program to this extremely high level of quality.

The Thomas E. Andreoli Endowed Chair in Nephrology pays tribute to Andreoli, who served as professor of medicine and director of the Division of Nephrology at UAB from 1970 to 1979. Andreoli has received numerous teaching awards and has been widely recognized for his distinguished leadership and service. While at UAB, he established the Nephrology Research and Training Center, which takes a multidisciplinary, interdepartmental approach to the study of kidney disease and physiology. Andreoli is currently a distinguished professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Arkansas College of Medicine.

Also being honored is Robert Luke, M.D. In 1979, Luke was recruited to UAB as director of the Division of Nephrology from the University of Kentucky. The leadership shown by Dr. Luke and Chief of Surgery Arnold G. Diethelm, M.D., created an atmosphere of cooperation that made the kidney program one of the largest and best in the country. A native of Scotland, Luke has been involved in academic medicine in the United States since 1968. He is currently at the University of Cincinnati, where he is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. The Robert G. Luke Endowed Chair in Transplant Nephrology will be used to support the leader of the transplantnephrology section and for faculty recruitment and future programdevelopment. The chair honors not only Luke’s vision, shared with Dr. Diethelm, but also his role in making transplant nephrology an integral part of the kidney transplant program.

“The Division of Nephrology owes much of its success to these two former directors, who not only laid important groundwork for our research and clinical efforts, but who mentored so many outstanding nephrology fellows over the years,” says Anupam Agarwal, M.D., current director of the Division of Nephrology and holder of the Thomas E. Andreoli Endowed Professorship in Nephrology. “We are delighted to be able to honor Dr. Luke and Dr. Andreoli with these named endowed faculty positions, and we look forward to completing them with gifts from former students, colleagues, and friends.”

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