Background
Dr. W. Virgil Brown is professor of medicine emeritus at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Brown received his BA degree from Emory, medical degree from Yale University and completed Internal Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins. He then joined the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he worked with Drs. Donald Fredrickson and Robert Levy isolating and characterizing for the first time, 3 of the 9 proteins involved in the structure of the plasma lipoproteins. These proteins proved to be important in regulating the levels of blood triglycerides and cholesterol. After completing a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Yale-New Haven Hospital, he joined the faculty at the University of California at San Diego, where he was director of the Lipid Research Clinic. In 1978 he became director of the Metabolic Disease Division and the Joseph Lowe and Louis Price Professor at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr Brown's research has improved the understanding of how various dietary changes and medications alter the metabolism of lipoproteins to correct high levels of cholesterol. His work has produced over 300 manuscripts in the medical literature.
He chaired the Gordon Conference on Lipid Metabolism in 1982 and the Metabolism Study Section of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) 1984 to 1985. Dr. Brown has served the American Heart Association as a member of several research review committees, chairman of the Nutrition Committee, as vice chairman of the Education and Community Program Committee and as the National AHA President (1991-1992). He was elected the first president of the Southeast Lipid Association (1998-2002), the first president of the National Lipid Association (2002 to 2004) and first president of the National Board of Clinical Lipidology (2004-2008). He is editor of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, and President-Elect of the International Atherosclerosis Society by vote of leadership in 52 National Societies.
His many honors include Chairman of the Faculty (UCSD School of Medicine, 1977-1978); Distinguished Professor of Medicine (Mt. Sinai School of Medicine of the Year,1987); the "Gold Heart Award" for lifetime service to the American Heart Association (1996); President of the Emory University Senate (1997); the R. Bruce Logue Award for Lifetime Contribution to Medicine (2000); and the Master Physician Award of the American College of Physicians. In 2008, he was given the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award by the Emory U. School of Medicine Alumni Association.