Dr. Pascal Goldschmidt, chair of the Department of Medicine and Edward S. Orgain professor of medicine, is leaving Durham and heading for warmer weather.
Goldschmidt has accepted an offer to become the senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of the University of Miami's Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, UM officials announced Friday. He will assume the post April 3.
"Pascal Goldschmidt is a wonderful person, and a person I greatly admire, who got a fabulous opportunity and took it," President Richard Brodhead said. "We were very lucky to have Pascal here, and while here, he did the accomplishments that made somebody else offer him the opportunity to take on a job with greater responsibilities. We can't be surprised if he took it."
Brodhead added that the University will soon undertake a search to fill the position.
"I regret his leaving, but we'll certainly do our best to find somebody terrific, and I'm sure we will," he said.
Goldschmidt specializes in cardiology. During his tenure at the University, the Belgian native more than doubled research funding from the National Institutes of Health, pushing Duke into a top-three national ranking.
As chair of the cardiology department, Goldschmidt helped to create the Duke Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Center, a program that helps improve the diagnostic capability for patients with cardiovascular disorders.
At UM, Goldschmidt will oversee the last phase of construction of a Clinical Research Institute and help plan for a university hospital and Biomedical Research Institute, among other initiatives.
"I think Dr. Goldschmidt is a perfect match for the University of Miami," UM President Donna Shalala said in a statement.
"He's a first-rate leader and a wonderful researcher-clinician who will raise the Miller School to a spectacular new level of international medical and scientific leadership."
Goldschmidt will oversee a staff of more than 7,000 and a budget of more than $900 million at UM.
At Duke, he ran a department with 1,200 staff in 16 divisions and an approximately $250-million budget.
Goldschmidt earned his medical degree from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and completed his residency and fellowship training in Brussels at Erasme Academic Hospital and in the United States at Johns Hopkins University.
Before joining Duke in 2000 he was director of cardiology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health.
Ryan McCartney contributed to this story.
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