Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio, Texas. Dr. DeFronzo is a graduate of Yale University (BS) and Harvard Medical School (MD) and did his training in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed fellowships in Endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and Baltimore City Hospitals and in Nephrology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he joined the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine (1975-88) as an Assistant/Associate Professor. From 1988 to present Dr. DeFronzo has been Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He also serves as the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute.
His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome. Using the euglycemic insulin clamp technique in combination with radioisotope turnover methodology, limb catheterization, indirect calorimetry, and muscle biopsy, he has helped to define the biochemical and molecular disturbances responsible for insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus.
For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo received the prestigious Lilly Award by the American Diabetes Association, the Banting Lectureship by the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Novartis Award for outstanding clinical investigation world wide, the Albert Renold Award, the Banting Award, and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD. These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively.
While in Oklahoma City to receive the Hamm Prize, Dr. DeFronzo delivered the Hamm Prize Lecture in Diabetes Research. Watch the lecture in its entirety.
Watch the 2017 Hamm Prize Laureate Video.