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The American Diabetes Association, the nation's largest and leading voluntary health organization in the fight against diabetes, announced today that R. Paul Robertson, MD, of Seattle, WA has been elected President, Medicine & Science and will begin his term on January 1, 2009.

As President, Medicine & Science, Dr. Robertson will be one of the principal officers of the American Diabetes Association and will provide leadership and direction to the Association's scientific and medical activities. He will also work closely with the Association's volunteers and staff on activities and programs in support of the Association's mission during his tenure.

Dr. Robertson has been a dedicated advocate of American Diabetes Association's mission and an active volunteer leader with the Association since 1984. Prior to his election as President, Medicine & Science, he served on the American Diabetes Association's National Board of Directors and as Editor in Chief of Diabetes, the Association's leading peer-reviewed research journal. He has also served as Chair of the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions Committee. This volunteer committee works together with Association staff to plan the annual Scientific Sessions, the world's largest and most renowned clinical and scientific conference on diabetes, attracting more than 17,000 scientists and health care practitioners from across the globe with presentations on cutting edge research developments.

Dr. Robertson is President and Scientific Director of the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute, and Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Washington. He is one of the country's preeminent researchers in the area of abnormal islet function. His current research is focused on determining why insulin producing cells fail in people who develop type 2 diabetes, and on islet and pancreas transplantation for people with type 1 diabetes. He has served on grant review panels and chaired study sections for the National Institutes of Health and for the American Diabetes Association, and is the current Editor of The Endocrine Society's journal Endocrine Reviews.

Dr. Robertson has received numerous awards for his work, including the American Diabetes Association's prestigious Albert Renold Award in 1997 for outstanding mentoring of diabetes scientists. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from San Diego State College. He earned his medical degree at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, and completed both his residency and fellowship in endocrinology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Diabetes is a serious disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Diabetes is growing at an alarming rate, with nearly 24 million children and adults living with this disease in the U.S. and another 57 million Americans at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.