President Robert Zimmer has named Roberto M. Lang, MD as the A.J. Carlson Professor effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Lang currently serves as Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Radiology and Director of the Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging Laboratories and the Cardiac Imaging Center for the University of Chicago Medicine. He is internationally known for his seminal work in the development of three dimensional transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, a non-invasive technique that is currently used world-wide to diagnose heart disease and guide structural heart disease in the catheterization lab. Dr. Lang’s contributions have had an enormous impact on the Department of Medicine’s reputation as a leader in cardiac imaging.
A native of Argentina, Dr. Lang received his MD from the University of Buenos Aires where he earned Medical Class Honors (Gold Medal)( ranked #1 out of 2,400 in class). He completed his internal medicine internship at Hebrew University in Jerusalem following by his residency training in internal medicine at Tel Aviv University. In 1983 he arrived at the University of Chicago for cardiology fellowship training and began what would be nearly 40 years of distinguished service in the Department of Medicine and Section of Cardiology. After completing a year of additional fellowship training in non-invasive imaging, Dr. Lang was appointed to the faculty as an Instructor in 1985, and successfully rose through the academic ranks to his current position as Professor (1997). He has served the Section of Cardiology in multiple leadership roles as Director Heart Failure Outpatient Clinic (1989-1998), Director of the Cardiac Noninvasive Imaging Laboratory (1992- present), Director Cardiology Fellowship Training Program (1998-2008), and Director of the Cardiac Imaging Center (2006-present)
Dr. Lang’s major research interests are the clinical utility of noninvasive techniques in assessing left ventricular contractile state and three dimensional echocardiography. He has published more than 700 manuscripts on cardiac imaging and physiology, 120 book chapters as well as 11 books on cardiac imaging and physiology during his career. Dr. Lang recently published the 3rd edition of American Society of Echocardiography’s (ASE) textbook on Comprehensive Echocardiography.
Dr. Lang’s work has been recognized with numerous awards including: the Edler Medal and Uriarch Prize for Contributions to Echocardiography, University Non-Invasive Cardiology Laboratories ,Gregorio Maraňon Hospital, Madrid Spain ( 2004); the Edler Lecture by the American Society of Echocardiography (2012); Honorary Euro-Lecture of the European Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (2012);the Award for a Distinguished Career and Contributions in Echocardiography by the Mexican National Society of Echocardiography (2013);the American Society of Echocardiography Meritorious Service Award (2015) and the Gold Medal of the Cuban Society of Echocardiography (2017). In 2017 he was recognized for his contributions to our tripartite missions with the Department of Medicine’s Distinguished Service Award.
Nationally, Dr. Lang served as president of the American Society of Echocardiography (2009-2010) and serves as a manuscript review consultant for most cardiology peer-reviewed journals and currently serves or has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Echocardiography, Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging and Journal of Echocardiography, the official journal of the Japanese Society of Echocardiography
As a mentor Dr. Lang has trained dozens of fellows and postdocs over the years and fostered the career development of many of the Department’s’ “next generation” of cardiologists including several of whom are now current Cardiology faculty: Drs. Victor Mor-Avi, Parker Ward, Jeanne DeCara, Amita Singh, and Karima Addetia. He is the past recipient of the Arthur Rubenstein Mentorship Award (2008), the Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Society of Echocardiography and the Roderick Childers Excellence in Teaching Award, Section of Cardiology (2015).