Media contact: Jeff Hansen
Jianyi “Jay” Zhang, M.D., Ph.D.Jianyi “Jay” Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., professor and T. Michael and Gillian Goodrich Endowed Chair of Engineering Leadership at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Biomedical Engineering, was named to a significant leadership position at the American Heart Association — chair of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences, known as the BCVS, effective July 1. His two-year term follows a two-year term as vice chair of the BCVS since 2020.
“It is an exceptional honor to chair this council, of which I have been a fellow member for three decades,” Zhang said. “This organization is crucial to the advancement of scientific research on cardiovascular disease — the leading cause of death in the United States. I am excited to serve in this role, leading the council in its endeavors, as it has supported my research and so many others in the past.”
The BCVS is one of the largest councils at the American Heart Association and one of the largest organizations in cardiovascular sciences globally, with more than 4,700 members from more than 45 countries.
Its mission is promoting basic science research and education, with the goal of improving understanding of mechanisms of basic cardiovascular regulation to support the development of new therapies and insights into clinical cardiovascular disease. The council places special emphasis on integrating molecular/cellular and physiological approaches to address problems in functional genomics, cell signaling, myocardial biology, circulatory physiology, pathophysiology and peripheral vascular disease.
Adam Wende, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Pathology, joined the BCVS Leadership Committee on July 1, and he will speak at the conference. Rajasekaran Namakkal-Soorappan, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Pathology, will also attend to receive the Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award, recognizing authors of the highest-ranked abstract from India at the BCVS Scientific Sessions.
This will be the first in-person BCVS meeting since 2019. In 2020 and 2021, with the coronavirus pandemic at large, the BCVS met as virtual events. In late 2021, the American Heart Association issued a presidential advisory on “Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Cardiovascular Sciences,” highlighting the refined infrastructure and approaches to biomedical science, and a call to invest protection and solutions to support the biomedical workforce and all its assets.
Biomedical Engineering is a joint department in the UAB School of Engineering and the Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine at UAB.