Former Co-Chair, InterAcademy Medical Panel
Ex Officio Member, IAC Board
David R. Challoner is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, where he served as Chairman of the Membership Committee, member of the Governing Council, and served as its Foreign Secretary from 1998-2006.
He was instrumental in the founding of the InterAcademy Medical Panel, the first global organization of the world’s medical academies and served as its Co-Chair. Its purpose is to increase the participation of the world’s medical academies in local, regional, and global civil society. His science policy positions include appointment by President Reagan to Chair the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science from 1988-90. He served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Academies' umbrella Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP), and served on the Governing Board of the U.S. National Research Council.
He was raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He graduated from Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin cum Laude in 1956. He received his M.D. cum Laude from Harvard Medical School in 1961, having taken a year's leave of absence as a Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge University in England. His post-graduate training included an internship and residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, a chief medical residency and endocrinology fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, and research training as a Research Associate at the National Heart Institute in Bethesda. His first academic appointment in 1967 was at the Indiana University School of Medicine where he rose to the rank of Professor of Internal Medicine. He subsequently served as Dean and Professor of Medicine at the St. Louis University School of Medicine from 1975 to 1982, University of Florida Vice President for Health Affairs and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Shands Health Care from 1982-1998, and currently holds the position of Interim Chair for the Department of Health Policy & Epidemiology and Vice President for Health Affairs Emeritus. Dr. Challoner's scientific career has included research in endocrinology and metabolism resulting in over thirty scientific publications. His clinical specialty is in internal medicine with a subspecialty interest in endocrinology. His honors have included election to Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honorary, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. He was awarded the Harvard Medical Alumni Award in 1961 and the Lawrence University Distinguished Alumni Award in 1987. He was the recipient of the American Medical Association's Dr. William Beaumont Award in 1982 for "outstanding contributions to the profession of medicine by a physician under the age of 50." He has held leadership and health policy positions in many national organizations including the Association of American Medical Colleges where he holds Distinguished Service Membership, the American Medical Association where he served as Chairman of the Section on Medical Schools, and the American Federation for Clinical Research which he served as President.