81st APS President (2008-2009)
Irving H. Zucker
(b. 1942)
 Irving
H. Zucker is the Theodore F. Hubbard Professor of Cardiovascular
Research and Chairperson of the Department of Cellular and Integrative
Physiology at the Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, NE.
Zucker is also a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine in the
Division of Cardiology. Hailing from New York City, he received a BS
from The City College of New York in 1965, an MS from The Univ. of
Missouri at Kansas City in 1967 and a PhD in Physiology from New York
Medical College in 1972 where he held an NSF pre-doctoral fellowship.
Zucker’s early PhD training with Gabor Kaley in the area of renal
function and volume regulation led him to an NIH postdoctoral fellowship
with Joseph P. Gilmore at UNMC from 1972-1973. Zucker joined the faculty
in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at UNMC as an Assistant
Professor in 1973. Zucker rose through the ranks and was appointed
Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in 1983.
Following the retirement of Dr. Gilmore, Zucker was appointed Chairman
of the Department in 1989. The Theodore F. Hubbard Endowed Chair was
awarded in 1998.
Zucker’s primary area of research interest is neurohumoral regulation of
the cardiovascular system in health and disease. He has focused on
regulatory cardiovascular reflexes in heart failure models. His early work
characterized the electrophysiological properties of cardiovascular sensory
endings in the heart and blood vessels in experimental heart failure. His
work has more recently concentrated on the central mechanisms that are
responsible for alterations in autonomic tone in the setting of chronic
heart failure and the role of exercise training in modulating neuronal
changes in autonomic control areas of the brain. The mechanisms for the
alterations in reactive oxidant species and angiotensin II in the CNS has
been the focus of the laboratory for several years.
Zucker has authored 137 original papers, 35 reviews, book chapters and
editorials, has edited one text on the reflex control of the circulation and
has published close to 200 abstracts. Zucker’s laboratory has been
continuously funded by NIH, The American Heart Association and industry
since 1975. This included a MERIT Award from the NHLBI from 1992-2002 and a
PPG from 1999 to the present. Zucker has supervised 10 graduate students, 16
postdoctoral fellows, 20 medical students and 16 undergraduate students.
In 1977, Zucker received an Established Investigatorship from the AHA and
a Research Career Development Award from the NIH. Other awards and honors
over the years have included The University of Nebraska Merit Award in 1983,
the Outstanding Research and Creative Achievement Award from the University
of Nebraska in 1993, Fellow of the Circulation Council and of the American
Heart Association from 1980, Fellow of the Council on High Blood Pressure
Research from 1993. Zucker received the Wiggers Award from the
Cardiovascular Section of APS and has received the Scientist Laureate Award
from the UNMC, both in 2008.
Zucker has or currently serves on the editorial boards of numerous
journals including The American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory
Physiology; The American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Comparative and
Integrative Physiology; Circulation Research; Hypertension; Basic Research
in Cardiology; Heart Failure Reviews; The Journal of Biomedical Science;
Drugs Under Clinical and Experimental Research; The Journal of Cardiac
Failure and others.
Zucker has served on several national, regional and local committees for
research organizations. These include the National Research Committee of the
American Heart Association, Chair of the Great Plains Regional Review
Committee of the American Heart Association; the National Scientific
Advisory Board of the International Academy of Cardiology and the
Publications Committee of the Heart Failure Society of America. He has also
served on various review panels including The NIH Cardiovascular and Renal
(CVB) Study Section from 2002-2003; the NIH Clinical and Integrative
Cardiovascular Sciences Study Section from 2003-2006 both as permanent
members and The Pathophysiology Study Section of the American Heart
Association from 2000-2002 and several other study sections for both NIH and
AHA.
Zucker has served in a leadership capacity at several levels. He was a
member of the council for the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
from 1998-2002. He was the founder and served as the first President of the
Nebraska Physiological Society from 1998-2000. He was President of the
Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology in 2003. He has served on
the APS Animal Care and Experimentation Committee and was Chair of the
Public Affairs Committee. Zucker served on the Executive Committee of the
Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association
from 2000-2002.
Zucker has presented 160 invited lectures throughout the world. He was a
visiting scientist of the National Science Council of Taiwan in 1991 and a
visiting scientist at the Heibei Medical College in the People’s Republic of
China in 1987 and 1997.
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