Donald Landry to Serve as Interim President of University of Florida
Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to express our congratulations to our colleague Donald W. Landry, MD, PhD, the Hamilton Southworth Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Human Longevity at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, who has accepted the position of interim president of the University of Florida, effective Sept. 1, 2025.
A pioneering clinician, researcher, and administrator, Dr. Landry has made invaluable contributions to our institution and to society. Dr. Landry, who previously served as physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/CUIMC and chair of the Department of Medicine at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, has been a member of the Columbia community for over 45 years, having completed his MD from VP&S in 1983. Dr. Landry was the founding director of the Division of Experimental Therapeutics, and he started the sub-subspecialty of ICU nephrology while director of the Division of Nephrology. Dr. Landry was also founding director of the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship Program at VP&S and served on the admissions committee for VP&S for 31 years.
Dr. Landry has conducted revolutionary research to solve diverse health challenges. He advanced pump-based continuous dialysis techniques in the ICU, having built a continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration apparatus and introducing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) to treat renal failure in patients with shock in our intensive care units. Additionally, Dr. Landry’s work on cocaine overdose and addiction led to the discovery of the first artificial enzyme to degrade cocaine.
Dr. Landry has made significant institutional impacts on the Department of Medicine and CUIMC at large. As chair, he significantly increased the number of faculty in the department, leading to its growth as a national leader in education and teaching efforts. NIH-funded research of the department also increased by 300 percent during his time as chair, and its NIH ranking among departments of medicine rose from fifteenth to the top five.
Dr. Landry serves as President of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Inventors. In 2008, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second highest civilian award, “for his diverse and pioneering research and his efforts to improve the well-being of his fellow man.”
In addition to his MD, Dr. Landry completed a PhD in Organic Chemistry at Harvard University with Nobel Laureate R.B. Woodward in 1979, and residency training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
The University of Florida, one of the country’s largest public universities, serves over 61,000 students and 32,000 employees. We are confident that Dr. Landry will make a lasting impact on this leading university system.
We are very grateful that Columbia has served as Dr. Landry’s home for so long, and we wish him all the best in his new role.
Sincerely,
Claire Shipman
Acting President, Columbia University in the City of New York
James McKiernan, MD
Interim Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Acting Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences, Columbia University
CEO, ColumbiaDoctors