John A. Oates
John A. Oates, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine received his M.D. degree from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine followed by training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Subsequently, he was a Clinical Associate and then a Senior Investigator at the National Heart Institute, working with Albert Sjoerdsma and Sidney Udenfriend.
In 1963, Dr. Oates joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University as the first Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology where he founded the Center for Clinical Pharmacology and Drug Toxicology. In 1973, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Karolinska Institute working with Professor Bengt Samuelsson. Dr. Oates chaired Vanderbilt’s Department of Medicine from 1983 - 1997.
John Oates and his colleagues have elucidated the metabolism and biosyntheses of eicosanoids, developed new approaches to quantifying their production in humans, and advanced knowledge of their pharmacology and pathophysiology.
Dr. Oates has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among the many awards that have recognized Dr. Oates’ scientific contributions, the most recent is the Award of Excellence in Clinical Research from the General Clinical Research Centers of the National Institutes of Health.