Vikas R. Dharnidharka, MD, MPH, a professor of pediatrics, has been installed as the Alexis F. Hartmann Sr., MD Professor of Pediatrics. A celebration to mark the event took place Thursday, August 3, 2023 in the Eric P. Newman Education Center.
Dharnidharka is the chief of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Hypertension and Pheresis at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. He is also the vice-chair for clinical investigation in the Department of Pediatrics. He obtained his MBBS and MD degrees from Topiwala National Medical College and Bombay University and his MPH degree in Biostatistics from the University of Florida. He completed his pediatric nephrology fellowship training at Children’s Hospital and Harvard University in Boston.
As a clinical and translational researcher, Dharnidharka creates and leads multidisciplinary teams that perform many different types of research, ranging from translational metagenomic sequencing projects to large database integrations for comparative effectiveness to clinical biomarker studies. His areas of focus are post-transplant infections and malignancies — in particular, PTLD and BK virus nephropathy. He has published more than 200 papers, including in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Lancet Infectious Diseases. He has received NIH salary support continuously since 2004, including R01 grants as a PI from the NIAID and NIDDK branches of NIH.
About Alexis F. Hartmann
Alexis F. Hartmann, Sr., MD, was head of the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and physician-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital from 1936-1964. He retired from both positions in July 1964 but continued as a professor of Pediatrics until his death in September of the same year.
Hartmann is recognized as creating the fluid and electrolyte replacement therapy for infants universally known as Lactated Ringer’s solution or Hartmann’s solution. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and medical degrees from Washington University, and throughout his career, he was affiliated with St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Noted for his scholarly and original contributions as an investigator, Hartmann was highly regarded as a clinician and teacher. Many of his former students hold prominent teaching positions at more than 30 medical schools around the country. The Alexis F. Hartmann, Sr., MD, Lecture was established in 1959 by colleagues and friends to honor Hartmann for his contributions to pediatric education.
We are delighted to be able to honor his memory and significant contributions to the Department of Pediatrics, the School of Medicine and pediatric medicine through the Alexis F. Hartmann, Sr., M.D. Professorship, which was established in 2012.