Rutgers University announced that starting October, board-certified pediatric nephrologist and transplant specialist Vikas Dharnidharka will join the university as the Henry Rutgers Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He will also serve as physician-in-chief of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital (BMSCH) at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
Dharnidharka is a consulting doctor and practicing neurologist who treats kidney disease in children, specializing in end-stage renal disease and kidney transplants. He is also an accomplished researcher whose work has been funded by the National Institute of Health over the last two decades. Most recently, he was at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where he was the Alexis F. Hartmann Sr., MD Endowed Professor of Pediatrics.
Dharnidharka received his medical degree from the Topiwala National Medical College in Mumbai, and earned his master’s in public health with a concentration in biostatistics from the University of Florida College of Public Health. He also has an Advanced Postgraduate degree in Clinical Investigation, also from the University of Florida.
“Rutgers Health, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and RWJBarnabas Health have been in the midst of an amazing transformation to create a powerhouse academic health system for the state of New Jersey and beyond,” said Dharnidharka about his new role with Rutgers. “With the visionary system leadership already in place, the potential to make a difference is so great.”