Williams, Roger R., M.D. (1990s)

Dr Williams was one of the medical school's most successful faculty members in obtaining research funding. Dr Williams was principal investigator on 21 research grants totaling $18.9 million. Nearly $16 million of that was awarded by the NIH for investigation into hypertension, coronary-prone pedigrees, heart attack and stroke deaths in Utah families. Dr Williams was born in Ogden, Utah in 1944. Dr Williams received his B.S. from Weber State College in 1968 and his M.D. from the University of Utah in 1971. Dr Williams competed his internship and residency training in internal medicine and cardiology at Duke University. Dr Williams completed post-doctoral fellowships at the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute from 1975-76. Dr Williams returned to the University of Utah in 1976 to found the Division of Cardiovascular Genetics in the Department of Medicine. Dr Williams founded MEDPED in 1989. Since that time, the Make Early Diagnoses to Prevent Early Deaths project has been instituted in other 40 countries worldwide to screen and register participants in Familial Hypercholesterolemia studies. Dr Williams died tragically in the crash of Swissair flight 111 on September 2, 1998. Dr Williams was traveling to Geneva, Switzerland where he was to chair meetings of the World Health Organization and International MEDPED FH Project. At the time of his death, Dr Williams was Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Research Clinic. Dr Williams was author of over 168 research articles.