The Willard and Rhoda Ware Professorship of Diabetes & Metabolic Diseases II

The chair was established in 2016 when the value of the endowment for the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professorship of Diabetes & Metabolic Diseases increased sufficiently to support a third professorship. The original Professorship was created in 1976 through the generosity of Willard Ware (1909–1984) and his wife Rhoda Ware (1911–2008).

A distinguished alumnus of The Wharton School, Willard M. Ware was affiliated throughout his career with American Water Works Company, the business founded by his father that became the largest water utility holding company in the U.S. Through the Ware Foundation, Willard and Rhoda Ware supported programs that addressed a wide range of concerns, including poverty, health and the needs of children. Their tradition is continued by the next generation of the family today.

At the Perelman School of Medicine, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professorship has supported leaders in the field of diabetes research.

Current Chairholder

Mitchell A. Lazar, MD, PhD

Mitchell A. Lazar, MD, PhD is the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor of Diabetes & Metabolic Diseases and Founding Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

He was an undergraduate at MIT, received his MD and PhD from Stanford University, and trained in internal medicine and endocrinology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital before joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1989, where he served as Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism from 1996-2020.

Dr. Lazar’s groundbreaking research has uncovered mechanisms by which the environment interacts with the genome to regulate circadian rhythms and metabolism and how these impact the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. He has received numerous awards from international societies and universities, including the Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award of the Endocrine Society. He has been elected to honorary societies for physician-scientists including the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, for which he served as President. He is also an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Science.