UF pulmonologist appointed interim chairman of UF’s department of medicine

University of Florida pulmonologist Edward R. Block, M.D., has been appointed to a three-year term as interim chairman of the UF College of Medicine’s department of medicine.

Block, a distinguished service professor of medicine specializing in pulmonary and critical care medicine, most recently served as associate chief of staff for research at Gainesville’s Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Charles S. Wingo, M.D., a professor of medicine in the division of nephrology, hypertension and renal transplant at the College of Medicine, has been appointed acting associate chief of staff for research.

Block came to UF in 1975 after completing fellowships in pulmonology and physiology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on defining how lung cells are injured in the destructive sequence of events that leads to adult respiratory distress syndrome. He also is seeking to identify ways the body repairs damaged cells or protects against the cell injury associated with the syndrome. His work has been continuously supported since 1976 by the National Institutes of Health and since 1978 by the Medical Research Service of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Block earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and is board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary disease. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a recipient of numerous honors, including the UF College of Medicine Faculty Research Prize in Clinical Science; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s MERIT Award (1998-2008); and the 1999 William S. Middleton Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He also is a UF Research Foundation professor.

He is a member of the American Physiological Society, the American Heart Association’s Cardiopulmonary Council, the American Thoracic Society and the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. He is a past president of the American Thoracic Society. Block has published many journal articles and currently serves on the editorial boards of Experimental Lung Research and the American Journal of Physiology: Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.