On Wednesday, April 17, the Heersink School of Medicine hosted a reception for individuals who have received endowment awards in the past year. UAB Department of Pathology had three faculty members recognized at the event: Alexander “Craig Mackinnon Jr.” – Robert B. Adams Endowed Professorship in Pathology; Rakesh Patel – Victor Darley-Usmar Endowed Professorship in Molecular Pathology; Casey Weaver – Leonard H. Robinson Endowed Chair in Pathology.
Craig Mackinnon, M.D., Ph.D., is the Division Director for Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics and has been named to the Robert B. Adams Endowed Professorship in Pathology.
A board-certified anatomical and molecular genetic pathologist, Dr. Mackinnon joined UAB in 2019 after serving as associate professor in the Department of Pathology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he directed the Clinical and Translational Research Laboratory. The lab developed multiple Next Generation Sequencing-based panels targeting variants in both DNA and RNA.
Dr. Mackinnon has been a pioneer of the validation of custom assays and an innovative leader in the field of genomic diagnostics. This endowment, generously supported by the family of Dr. Robert Adams, bolsters his work and the work of our team of experts in genomics diagnostics, allowing us to further expand the services and tests we offer.
Rakesh Patel, Ph.D., is recognized as the inaugural holder of the Victor Darley-Usmar Endowed Professorship in Pathology. The naming of Dr. Patel to this endowment is particularly poignant in that he has worked with Dr. Darley-Usmar since his early days as a trainee—in fact, the two have consistently collaborated on research throughout their time at UAB Pathology. Patel started with UAB Pathology as a post-doctoral fellow in 1997 Victor’s lab. He transitioned to research assistant professor, working his way up to professor in 2010, and being named Division Director, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, in 2023.
He is the director of the Center for Free Radical Biology, and has secondary appointments in the departments of Anesthesiology, Environmental Health Sciences, and Surgery. In 2017, Rakesh was named Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology, a role he ceded upon taking over as Division Director.
Dr. Patel maintains an internationally recognized research program, having engaged in free radical research for more than 20 years. He is a fellow of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine and has served on the Editorial Board of Free Radical Biology and Medicine for 15 years.
Casey Weaver, M.D., is named with the Leonard H. Robinson Endowed Chair in Pathology. In 2023, Weaver was inducted as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors an American scientist can be awarded. For 30 years, Weaver has studied T cells, one of the important white blood cells of the immune system in their role to protect the body from infection and cancer. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers in outstanding high-impact and prestigious journals and he is an author of Janeway’s Immunobiology, one of the leading immunology textbooks. The Robinson chair was originally created in 1989 by the Department of Pathology to recognize Dr. Leonard H. Robinson for his outstanding service as a teacher and administrator. We are honored to have Casey serve in this endowed role.
Please join me in congratulating Patel, Weaver, and Mackinnon on their distinguished honors as endowed professors and chair in the Department of Pathology.