Christopher Glembotski, PhD, is a renowned researcher in cardiovascular disease with a remarkable background and a wide-range of accomplishments not only as a scientist, but as an educator and leader. He is the inaugural director of the Translational Cardiovascular Research Center; the associate dean for Research; and a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine.Prior to joining the college, Dr. Glembotski served as the director of the San Diego State University SDSU) Heart Institute and was a distinguished professor of biology. Dr. Glembotski has an extensive research background and garnered more than 35 million in grants during his time at SDSU. Since he started his own lab in 1983, he has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health.Dr. Glembotski earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, CA, and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. He continued his studies at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver as a postdoctoral fellow in molecular physiology and moved to his first faculty position as professor of pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia before relocating to San Diego to become director of the SDSU Heart Institute.