Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC, chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is one of four Vanderbilt University faculty members elected this year to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

The others are:

• Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, MFA, Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Fine Arts, and founder of the Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice.
• Major Jackson, MFA, the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, professor of English and director of Creative Writing.

• Keivan Stassun, PhD, Stevenson Professor of Physics & Astronomy, and director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence from “every field of human endeavor.” This year, 269 members were elected from the mathematical, physical, biological, social, and behavioral sciences, humanities, the arts, leadership, policy and communications.

“This is a huge honor, and I’m proud to be able to represent VUMC through work with this organization,” said Rathmell, the Hugh Jackson Morgan Professor of Medicine and professor of Biochemistry.

“Especially in this challenging time, it is inspiring to see that there are groups of people who value and are ‘committed to multidisciplinary, nonpartisan research that engages experts in various fields and professions to provide pragmatic solutions for complex challenges,’” she said. “We at VUMC are up to the challenge.”

Rathmell is internationally recognized for her molecular biology research in the pathogenesis of kidney cancer, nationally funded large-scale genomic studies of cancer, and clinical investigations that have brought new biomarkers, imaging modalities and life-saving therapies to patient care.

She also is nationally known for her advocacy of physician-scientist training, for championing support of kidney cancer research, and for the development of policies that address drug shortages and conflicts of interest in scientific publishing in equitable ways.

Rathmell served in 2019 as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine last year. She also is a member of the Association of American Physicians, and of the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Advisors.

She is one of two current academy members from Vanderbilt with a primary appointment in the School of Medicine. The other is Nancy Carrasco, MD, the Joe C. Davis Professor of Biomedical Science, and professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, who was elected last year.

New members will be formally inducted into the academy on Sept. 30 during a ceremony at academy headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.