The Richard T. and Angela Clark President’s Distinguished Professorship

The Professorship was established in 2015 through the generosity of Richard T. and Angela Clark. The Clarks’ gift provides financial support for a prominent faculty member in the Perelman School of Medicine with a preference toward members of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute and/or the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine.

Richard T. Clark is the former chairman and CEO of Merck. In a career spanning 39 years with Merck, Mr. Clark also held a broad range of senior management positions within the company’s manufacturing organization. From 2008 to 2009 he served as Board Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents the country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies. Mr. Clark is Chairman of Project Hope, an international health care organization that works in developing countries to help eradicate infectious diseases, train health professionals and educate parents and their children on how to prevent and treat diseases. He is also Chairman of the Washington & Jefferson College Board of Trustees and the Catholic Foundation of Greater Philadelphia.

He has served as Chair of Penn’s Cardiovascular Institute Leadership Council since 2007 and as a member of the Penn Medicine Board since 2011.

President’s Distinguished Professorships are awarded to eminent faculty members with research and teaching expertise in areas identified by the President of the University as high priorities. The creation of President’s Distinguished Professorships at the Perelman School of Medicine has been supported by the challenge gift of Penn University Trustees and Penn Medicine Board members George A. Weiss and Richard W. Vague.

Current Chairholder
Francis E. Marchlinski, MD

Francis E. Marchlinski, MD is Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology for UPHS, Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), and Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Translational Center of Excellence; and has held the Richard T. and Angela Clark President’s Distinguished Professorship since 2015.

He is a graduate of the Perelman School of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral internal medicine residency and cardiology/electrophysiology fellowship training at HUP. An outstanding clinician, Dr. Marchlinski established and leads an electrophysiology program that receives referrals from around the world.

For over 35 years, Dr. Marchlinski has been on the cutting edge of cardiac electrophysiology, pioneering novel catheter-based techniques for the elimination of unstable ventricular tachycardias and atrial fibrillation. He has authored over 500 original scientific articles and over 200 book chapters, reviews, and editorials. His research efforts have been supported by the International Leducq Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He is also on the editorial board of numerous cardiology/electrophysiology journals.

Dr. Marchlinski has trained over 200 fellows in electrophysiology, many of whom have gone on to lead electrophysiology programs across the globe. He has also directed numerous regional and international electrophysiology symposia and has received numerous teaching awards at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been the recipient of a range of other prestigious honors including the Luigi Mastroianni Clinical Innovator Award, the Venice Arrhythmia Distinguished Scientist Award, the Association for Clinical and Translational Science Distinguished Investigator Award, and the Heart Rhythm Society Distinguished Teacher Award.