Antonio M. Gotto Jr., M.D., has been appointed Cornell University's Provost for Medical Affairs and the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of the Medical College in New York City, President Hunter Rawlings announced today (Sept. 25, 1996).

Gotto is currently the Bob and Vivian Smith Professor and chair of the Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital in Houston. A nationally renowned researcher, Gotto and his associates were the first to achieve the complete synthesis of a plasma apolipoprotein (apo C-I), and they determined the complete cDNA and amino acid sequence of apo B-100, one of the largest proteins ever sequenced and a key protein in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.

Gotto is author of The New Living Heart Cookbook and co-author of The Living Heart and The New Living Heart Diet, books which explain to the general public the origin and dietary treatment of cardiovascular disease.

He succeeds Dr. Robert Michels, who stepped down from the Cornell posts last spring, and will assume his new position on Jan. 1, 1997. Dr. Carl Nathan will serve as acting dean through Dec. 31.

"It is with great pleasure that we announce today the appointment of Dr. Gotto as Provost for Medical Affairs and Dean of the College," Rawlings said. "He brings precisely those research, administrative, clinical and public service skills that will best serve the College as it approaches the dawn of the next century. I look forward with great enthusiasm to working with him in this most exciting and challenging period for health care and medical education."

"I am delighted to join this extraordinarily strong institution," Gotto said. "I look forward to the opportunity to build its research infrastructure and to carry out the College's well-developed strategic plan. I am particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of forging still stronger academic relationships with our neighbors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Rockefeller University, while strengthening our outstanding clinical ties with New York Hospital and our other affiliated institutions."

At Baylor, Gotto is Distinguished Service Professor and also holds the J.S. Abercrombie Professor Chair for Atherosclerosis and Lipoprotein Research and is scientific director of the DeBakey Heart Center. He is chief of the Internal Medicine Service at the Methodist Hospital in Houston.

Gotto's research interests include the structure, metabolism and function of the plasma lipoproteins and apolipoproteins and their relation to atherosclerosis; clinical disorders of lipid transport, including hyperlipoproteinemias and hypolipidemias; and the pathology of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. He has written more than 350 original scholarly articles.

Gotto has served as national president of the American Heart Association and as a member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Advisory Council and on the National Diabetes Advisory Board. He is currently president of the International Atherosclerosis Society and co-chair of the U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Italian Cardiovascular Workgroups.

He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Order of the Lion from the Republic of Finland and honorary degrees from the University of Bologna and Abilene Christian University.

Gotto received his B.A. in biochemistry from Vanderbilt University in 1957, his D.Phil. in biochemistry from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his M.D. in 1965 from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. His residency training was at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston followed by training at the National Institutes of Health.

He is married to Anita Safford Gotto and is the father of three daughters, Dr. Jennifer Gotto-Williams, Mrs. Gillian Brenner and Miss Teresa Gotto.