Prof. Ralph Anthony DeFronzo, MD
Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSCSA) and Deputy Director of Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio, Texas. Dr. DeFronzo is a graduate of Yale University (BS) and Harvard Medical School (MD) and did his training in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed fellowships in Endocrinology at National Institutes of Health and Nephrology at Hospital of University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty at Yale University School of Medicine (1975-88) as an Assistant/Associate Professor. From 1988 to present Dr. DeFronzo has been Professor of Medicine at UTHSCSA.
His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and his work has been instrumental in defining the biochemical and molecular disturbances responsible for T2DM. For his work, Dr. DeFronzo received the prestigious Lilly Award (1987) by American Diabetes Association (ADA), Banting Lectureship (1988) by Canadian Diabetes Association, Novartis Award (2003) for outstanding clinical investigation world wide received the ADA’s Albert Renold Award (2002) for lifetime commitment to training young diabetes investigators, and many other national/international awards. Dr. DeFronzo received the Banting Award from ADA (2008) and Claude Bernard Award from EASD (2008). These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively. With more than 700 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, Dr. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus.
