Former Penn prof named NYU Med dean

Former Penn professor Robert Grossman will be the next Dean of the New York University School of Medicine, NYU officials announced last week.

Grossman, who graduated from the Penn School of Medicine in 1973, will also serve as the new CEO of the NYU Hospitals Center.

He will assume both positions in July.

The well-known radiologist spent time as a resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and served for 20 years as a professor at Penn Med.

In 2001, he moved to New York and took the helm of the radiology department at NYU.

Grossman was selected for the Dean and CEO positions after a year-long process during which about 115 candidates were interviewed by an NYU search committee.

A week after the announcement, Grossman looked back fondly on his time at Penn, calling it a "tremendous training ground" for his medical career.

"I was incredibly happy to be a medical student" at Penn, Grossman said. "I've always been impressed with the quality of [HUP's] care and [Penn's] ability to do science."

Grossman said Penn taught him the values of integrity and persistence and added that his Penn colleagues were "terrific."

But now that Grossman is in charge at NYU, he'll have to deal with some problems specific to the Big Apple.

"NYU needs to move into a period of substantial physical development," said Robert Berne, senior vice president for Health at NYU.

To that end, the university will construct a major clinical facility over the next five years, Berne said.

And, of course, there's also a medical school to run. Still, Grossman's colleagues have no doubt that he will be able to do all of those things.

"I think that he is amazingly qualified to be both a Dean and a CEO, and it's rare to find those qualities in one person," said Bernard Birnbaum, the vice-chairman of the NYU radiology department and a former colleague of Grossman's at Penn.

For the last decade, the same candidate has held both positions, but finding someone capable for both posts can prove difficult.

Many of the candidates were either an excellent fit for the job of Dean or of CEO, but Grossman was one of the few to be perfect for both, Birnbaum said, adding that Grossman is "one of the most intelligent and capable people . I've ever met."

Berne agreed, saying that Grossman "has a great devotion to academic improvement, and essentially took a good radiology department and made it great."

Grossman will be replacing Robert Glickman, who has held both positions since 1998.

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