Endocrine Society Learning Center

Guillermo E. Umpierrez, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes and Associate Director of the General Clinical Research Center at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also Director of the Diabetes Clinic and the Diabetes and Endocrinology Section of Grady Health Systems, also in Atlanta. Dr. Umpierrez received his medical degree in Ecuador and completed his internal medicine residency and endocrinology fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Umpierrez is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including 4 Best Clinical Science Professor Awards, 3 Golden Apple Awards for Best Clinical Teacher, the Silver Pear Award for Best Clinical Junior Faculty Mentor at Emory University, the J. Willis Hurst Outstanding Bedside Teacher Award, from the Georgia ACP, and the 2009 AACE Outstanding Service Award for the Promotion of Endocrine Health of an Underserved Population. He has published more than 100 scientific papers and book chapters, and has presented over 100 research abstracts at national and international scientific meetings. Dr. Umpierrez�s current research interest includes mechanisms for β-cell dysfunction in African Americans; the effects of free fatty acids on insulin secretion, inflammation, and hypertension in obese patients; and management of hyperglycemia in critical and noncritical inpatients. His research program at Grady Hospital and Emory University is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association, and Geaorgia Healthcare Foundation. Dr. Umpierrez also oversees funding of a bilingual diabetes education program for Latino patients in Georgia, and serves as the principal investigator for several multicenter research studies in the area of inpatient glycemic control.

Greet Van den Berghe graduated �summa cum laude� at the faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1985 after which she specialized in Anesthesiology and later in Intensive Care Medicine. She studied biostatistics and in 1994 completed a Ph.D. thesis on Endocrinology of critical illness. From 1995 until 2004, she was a Clinical Research Investigator for the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders, Belgium. She was appointed head of the Department of Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in 2002. This intensive care unit is a large (56 beds) tertiary center treating around 2500 patients per year, adults as well as children. In 2005 she also became head of the �Division for Acute Medical Sciences� at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Greet Van den Berghe is Professor of Medicine at the Leuven University, and has been running an active research program on the endocrinology of critical illness since 1995. She is also a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. Greet Van den Berghe published over 160 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has authored several chapters in international textbooks on intensive care and endocrinology. She has been an invited speaker at many scientific meetings worldwide.