Richard Baron Appointed Chairman of Radiology at University of Chicago

Richard Baron appointed chairman of radiology at University of Chicago


July 2, 2002

Richard L. Baron, M.D., a pioneer in abdominal imaging and in the gastrointestinal applications of magnetic resonance and computed tomography scans, has been appointed chairman of radiology at the University of Chicago Medical Center, beginning this fall.

Baron, 53, comes to the University of Chicago from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the founding president and CEO of the University of Pittsburgh Physicians Practice Plan and professor of radiology. He served as chairman of the department of radiology at Pittsburgh from 1992 to 1999.

Particularly well known for his research on diagnostic imaging of liver disease, Baron has received numerous research awards. He has served in leadership roles for several national radiology societies, most recently as president of the Society of Computed Body Tomography/Magnetic Resonance from 1998 to 1999.

"Richard is well respected as a leader in the study of liver disease and has shown remarkable administrative talents as head of the Pittsburgh Physicians Practice Plan," said James Madara, Dean of the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Chicago. "It is an honor, and a good omen, to announce this appointment as one of my first official acts at the University of Chicago." Madara took office July 1, 2002.

The author of more than 100 articles in scientific journals, more than 40 book chapters and review articles, and hundreds of invited lectures, Baron has served as an editorial consultant or reviewer for several medical-specialty journals. Besides performing research, he has played an active role as a teacher at the University of Pittsburgh and for numerous national radiology specialty societies.

He graduated from Yale University in 1972 and earned his medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine in 1976. He did his residency in radiology and a fellowship in abdominal radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Washington, in Seattle, before going to Pittsburgh as a professor of radiology in 1990.

His wife, Shirley Baron, Ph.D., will be joining the department of psychiatry at the University.