Dr. Robert Engler majored in Physics at University of North Carolina and graduated with honors from Georgetown University School of Medicine. After training in cardiology at Georgetown he was on the Faculty, Department of Medicine and Faculty, Institute of Biomedical Engineering at University of California San Diego (UCSD) from 1975 to 2001, and now is Professor of Medicine Emeritus. He was clinically based at the San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (VA) where he served as Director Coronary Care Unit/Medical Intensive Care Unit and Associate Chief of Staff for Research. His awards include Fellow, American Society for Clinical Investigation, Hamburger Award, and UCSD Kaiser Award as outstanding teacher. He was one of the founders of the Veterans Medical Research Foundation San Diego (VMRF) in 1992 and served as President and Chairman of the Board until his retirement. After a mandatory 2 year rotation off the Board from 2007, he rejoined the VMRF Board in 2009. He has been involved in founding 3 biotechnology companies, has served as a Director on 7 corporate boards of private, public, and Not For Profit corporations (currently on 3). He taught in 8 core and elective medical school courses and served on or chaired numerous UCSD and VA committees. He served on the thesis committee of 7 graduate students in physiology and bioengineering. He held research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, and American Heart Association. He published 85 research articles and 21 book chapters investigating the microcirculation in the heart, apoptosis, adenosine regulating agents, and gene therapy. He is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board of 6 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and is an independent consultant. He is married and has two adult children.
