Dr. Vishnu Reddy and his wife, SaralaWritten by Christina Crowe
On January 9, colleagues, trainees, alumni and friends of Dr. Vishnu Reddy, Division Director, Laboratory Medicine, came together to recognize and celebrate his 30 years of dedication to UAB, at the Vishnu B. Reddy Hemepath Symposium.
Marisa Marques, M.D., Professor, Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Blood Bank and Stem Cell Facility, Callahan Eye Hospital, organized the event in honor of her colleague and mentor, having been a trainee of Dr. Reddy's years ago.
Reddy is director, hematopathology and bone marrow for the Kirklin Clinic, and Hematopathology section head for Pathology. He came to UAB 30 years ago after already having served as a Colonel in the US Army Medical Corps, following his pathology residency. He joined UAB Pathology in 1992 as Hematology Lab Medical Director, a role he has maintained ever since. Dr. Reddy has served as interim division director for the divisions of Laboratory Medicine, Anatomic Pathology, and even Neuropathology throughout his time here. In 2019 he received the Dean's Excellence Award for Service for Senior Faculty, and also that year the department dedicated Surgical Pathology Conference Room NP 3554 in his name. In 2021 the department established an endowed professorship in his name, held by C. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D., Division Director, Neuropathology. And in 2022, Reddy was provided a UAB President's Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has mentored nearly 200 residents in his time with the department, including professor Marques.
Speakers at the event included Peter Anderson D.V.M., Ph.D., Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, and Thomas Winokur, M.D., Division Director, Women's Health on Dr. Reddy's role in teaching in the Medical school and in Anatomic Pathology; Deniz Peker, M.D., Associate Professor and Hematopathologist, Emory University, on his role as her mentor; Pankit Vachhani, M.D., Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology, UAB Department of Medicine, on leukemia research at UAB; Amitkumar Mehta, M.D., Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, on lymphoma research at UAB; Luciano Costa, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Hematology and Oncology, on myeloma clinical research at UAB, and Diana Morlote, M.D., Assistant Professor, Genomic Diagnostics & Bioinformatics, on her hematopathology journey and Dr. Reddy.
Throughout the day, colleagues and friends of Dr. Reddy visited to celebrate his work at UAB, including several retirees from the department---on both the faculty and staff--who returned especially for the event. As Dr. REddy said at its conclusion, he is, "very proud to be part of the UAB patient care family," calling the event an "extraordinary effort."