Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul, daughter of Dr. Supote Phipatanakul, was recently appointed to the prestigious post of Chair in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Dear Division colleagues,
I am delighted to share with you the wonderful news that Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul has been named the inaugural incumbent of the Westonian Chair in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Wanda joined the Division in 2000 as an Instructor, having studied at Union College and Loma Linda University, followed by residency at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Johns Hopkins. Here she completed an MS at the Harvard School of Public Health and built a research program that has had major impact in the areas of pediatric allergy and asthma, in particular with respect to the role of environmental factors. Collaborating with Dr. Talal Chatila, Dr. Hans Oettgen, Dr. Raif Geha, Dr. Lynda Schneider, and other investigators, she defined new mechanisms conferring risk of severe asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergy, including in disadvantaged populations.
Her work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Nature Medicine, and other prominent journals (>300 papers so far) and has been funded by a truly astonishing set of NIH grants. An accomplished teacher and mentor, Wanda’s many trainees have won K23 and R01 awards and gone on to become successful independent investigators.
Wanda is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), among many other honors, and has served in leadership roles including currently as a member of the Board of Directors of the AAAAI. Already a Professor of Pediatrics since 2017, the appointment to this new chair – created by Dr. Gary Fleisher specifically to recognize Wanda’s accomplishments and to support her work going forward – represents one of the highest honors for any physician-scientist at Harvard.
Please join me in congratulating Wanda on this major milestone. I look forward to celebrating this Chair with Wanda, her family, and her many students, colleagues, and friends as soon as the opportunity arises.
Yours,
Peter A. Nigrovic, MD
Chief, Division of Immunology | Boston Children’s Hospital
Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud Professor of Pediatrics | Harvard Medical School
Director | Center for Adults with Pediatric Rheumatic Illness | Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director | Joint Biology Consortium