Former Duke Cardiologist Harold Strauss Named Chair of UB Department of Physiology And Biophysics

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Harold C. Strauss, M.D., former Edward S. Orgain Professor of Cardiology at Duke University Medical Center and a specialist in ion-channel function, has been named chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Strauss held appointments in medicine and pharmacology at Duke, and for the past 13 years served as director of its multidisciplinary Specialized Center of Research in Ischemic Heart Disease/Congestive Heart Failure.

He brings to UB an extensive research background in the electrophysiology of cardiac cells, and is principal investigator on three major federal grants studying the structure and function of potassium channels in order to develop safer and more effective antiarrhythmic drugs.

A native of Canada, Strauss earned his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal in 1964 and completed an internship and junior residency at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital. From 1966-68, he was a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. He then completed a one-year residency in medicine at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a two-year cardiology residency at New York's Presbyterian Hospital.

Strauss joined Duke University Medical Center in 1972.

In recognition of two decades of involvement with the American Heart Association, Strauss received its Award for Meritorious Achievement in 1996. He has served on various committees and boards of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He is associate editor of Circulation Research and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology. As a researcher, he has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has authored numerous review articles and book chapters.

He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and is affiliated with several additional professional organizations.