William Ridgway Appointed Director of UC's Division of Immunology

CINCINNATI

—William Ridgway, MD, has been appointed director of the division of immunology at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.

Ridgway was previously an associate professor of medicine, with tenure, in the division of rheumatology and clinical immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he researched the genetics and cellular immunology of autoimmunity. He focuses primarily on investigating mouse models with spontaneous autoimmune syndromes such as type 1 diabetes and autoimmune liver disease. He was also a principal investigator within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Autoimmunity Center of Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.

From 1998 to 2003, Ridgway served as chief of the rheumatology division at the Oakland Veterans Affairs Hospital in Pittsburgh.

“I am very excited to have Dr. Ridgway lead UC’s division of immunology,” says David Stern, MD, vice president for health affairs at UC and dean of the College of Medicine. “His enthusiasm and experience make him an ideal person to head the division.

“He will be a welcome addition to the leadership team of the College of Medicine.”

Ridgway received his medical degree from the University of Rochester in New York and completed an internal medicine residency and rheumatology/immunology fellowship at Stanford University Hospital in California. He received further training as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine.

He has collaborated with many physicians, nationally and internationally, on basic research, particularly in the areas of autoimmunity and autoimmune phenotypes. Additionally, Ridgway has retained repeated research support through grants from the NIH.

During his career, Ridgway has received several distinguished awards including the    
highly competitive Pfizer Scholars Grant for new faculty and Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International Career Development Award. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, American Association of Immunology, Clinical Immunology Society and a fellow of the American College of Rheumatology.

“I am pleased and honored to join the Division of Immunology at University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center,” Ridgway says. “I look forward to starting new research initiatives in lupus, allergy and the immunogenetics of autoimmune disease.”

Ridgway replaces John Houk, MD, interim director of the immunology division.