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October, 2011: Richard H. Karas, MD, PhD appointed as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Tufts Medical Center. Dr. Karas, Executive Director of the MCRI, previously served as Interim CSO.
From the hospital's community-wide announcement
Dear Medical Center Community,
I am extremely pleased to announce that Richard H. Karas, MD, PhD will assume the position of Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) in a permanent capacity.Dick is internationally respected by the research community and has served as an insightful, astute and inspiring leader at Tufts Medical Center. Since taking over as Interim CSO in July of 2010, he has had a profound impact on the success of the Medical Center’s research program.
Dick has significantly diversified our research funding base by increasing corporate sponsorship of research initiatives by 17 percent in the past year. One highlight of this achievement was involving us in the extremely competitive Pfizer Center for Therapeutic Innovation program. He and his team have also worked diligently to organize our research administration functions to make us most effective in securing future commercial sponsorships. He founded the Commercialization of Research Partnership (CORP) initiative to bring together the offices of Business Development, Grants and Contracts, and Technology Transfer and Licensing. CORP allows us to efficiently and collaboratively create new partnerships with corporate sponsors and decrease our reliance on federal funding. Dick has also strengthened the relationship between Tufts MC’s research program and Tufts University School of Medicine and fully understands the mutual benefit our organizations achieve by working closely together. An active Senior Team member since accepting the CSO position, Dick has played a significant role in ensuring our focus on, and attention to, the research mission of the Medical Center.
A Tufts MC cardiologist since 1992, Dick has held the positions of Director of the Preventive Cardiology Center since 1999, Vice Chairman for Scientific Affairs for the Department of Medicine since 2008 and Executive Director of the Molecular Cardiology Research Institute (MCRI) since 2010. He will continue to serve in these capacities. Dick’s basic science research laboratory has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1994. He has been the Principal Investigator in 24 current and recent clinical research studies and his research findings have been published in nearly 150 different peer-reviewed journals. Along with being an esteemed researcher and clinician, he is an internationally recognized expert in coronary artery disease in women, preventive cardiology and cholesterol and lipid management. Dick has received a number of local and national clinical, research and teaching awards, including the Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association (AHA). He has also served on 15 different AHA committees and on numerous grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health.
Please join me in congratulating Dick on everything he has already accomplished and in wishing him the best as he continues to lead the advancement of our research enterprise.
With great respect,
Eric J. Beyer
President & Chief Executive Officer
Tufts Medical Center
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