The William Wikoff Smith Professorship of Orthopaedic Surgery

The W.W. Smith Charitable Trust established the Professorship in 2017, continuing the Trust’s long-standing partnership with the University to advance their common missions of education and biomedical research.

The Trust was established in 1977 by the bequest of William Wikoff Smith (1919–1976). Mr. Smith successfully led the expansion of Kewanee Oil Company, which had been founded by his great-grandfather. He attended the Wharton School in 1937 and 1938; his father, Wikoff Smith, graduated from Penn in 1897. In addition to funding projects in basic needs, medical research, and education, the Trust supports maritime heritage efforts—sailing and shipbuilding were among William Wikoff Smith’s favorite activities.

Over the past 35 years, the Trust’s extraordinary support has helped numerous Penn students pursue their undergraduate education. At the Perelman School of Medicine, the Trust has allowed many scientists and physicians to conduct important basic research projects in cancer, AIDS, heart disease, and diabetes—studies that have yielded breakthrough results and that might not have been possible without this support.

Current Chairholder
Ernestina Schipani, MD, PhD

Ernestina Schipani, MD, PhD is the William Wikoff Smith Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schipani earned her MD and PhD at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies at the University of Pisa in Italy. She completed her postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School, where she subsequently rose through the ranks and became Associate Professor. She was first recruited to Indiana University Medical School as Full Professor of Internal Medicine and next to University of Michigan Medical School as Full Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Medicine, and Cell and Developmental Biology.

Early in her career, Dr. Schipani discovered that gain-of-function mutations of PTHR1 cause Jansen’s metaphyseal chondrodysplasia disease. Next, she pioneered the notion that hypoxia-driven pathways control skeletal development. Her laboratory has established novel principles in the broader fields of G-protein coupled receptors and hypoxia biology. She currently studies the role of hypoxia-driven pathways, mitochondria, and reprogramming of metabolism in skeletal development, homeostasis, and disease.

Dr. Schipani has received numerous national and international recognitions. NIH has funded her research since 1997. She has been an American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) member since 2005 and a Fellow of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) since 2019, when she received the organization’s Paula Stern Achievement Award.