David J. Pinsky, M.D. is the J. Griswold Ruth and Margery Hopkins Ruth Professor of Internal Medicine, the Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine, and a Director of the University of Michigan’s Cardiovascular Center. He graduated with top honors from both the University of Toledo and the Ohio State University College of Medicine, after which he moved to New York to complete residency training at Mount Sinai Hospital and cardiology and nuclear cardiology fellowships at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.  After completing research training in heart failure and vascular biology, he joined the faculty of Columbia University where he began his own research laboratory and led the cardiology research training program until his recruitment to the University of Michigan in 2003. Dr. Pinsky is an inventor on over a dozen patents, is an author of over 200 scientific papers and book chapters, and leads an active laboratory focused on understanding how natural blood vessel defense mechanisms may be amplified to protect in conditions such as stroke, heart attack, or organ transplantation.  This work has led him to focus on the role of protective enzymes and biological gases such as nitric oxide and carbon monoxide which are made by blood vessel wall cells, which defend against blood flow interruption and inflammatory damage. He is an elected member of honorary scientific societies including the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians, and the Association of University Cardiologists. He has served on and chaired numerous national peer-review and strategy panels for the American Heart Association, the Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health, and is a popular lecturer world-wide. Most recently, he was selected as a Senior Scholar of the Taubman Medical Research Institute at the University of Michigan, and Co-Director of the UM-Israel Partnership for Research.