The Association of Professors of Medicine (APM) awarded Eric G. Neilson, MD, the 2010 Robert H. Williams, MD, Distinguished Chair of Medicine Award during the 2010 APM Winter Meeting, held February 24-27 at The US Grant in San Diego, CA.
The association’s highest honor, the Williams Award recognizes a physician who has demonstrated outstanding leadership as the chair of a department of internal medicine at a medical school. Paul E. Klotman, MD, presented the award to Dr. Neilson at the Annual APM Awards Lunch for Participants and Guests. Dr. Neilson was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. According to his nominators, “he has been… one of the most important Chairmen of the past decade, quietly moving his Department from the second tier to one of the elite programs in the country… Dr. Neilson is a superb physician-scientist, absolutely dedicated to the highest ideals of the profession and academic medicine.” During his tenure at Vanderbilt University, the department of medicine has grown from 279 to more than 600 faculty. In addition, under Dr. Neilson’s leadership, Vanderbilt University’s ranking in National Institute of Health (NIH) funding for research among all departments of medicine in US medical schools has moved from 21st to fifth place.
Dr. Neilson is also a founding member of the Association of Specialty Professors, and he is the namesake of the association’s Distinguished Professor Award, which recognizes a leader who has shaped the specialty internal medicine landscape.
Dr. Neilson is currently the Hugh Jackson Morgan Professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Physician-in-Chief at Vanderbilt University Hospital. Before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University, he was the C. Mahlon Kline Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Renal-Electrolyte and Hypertension Division at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Neilson completed his residency in internal medicine and his fellowship in nephrology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, where he graduated first in his class, and he received his bachelor’s degree from Denison University.