C. Craig Tisher

Dr. Tisher was awarded his M. D. degree in 1961 from Washington University of St. Louis. After completion of his internal medicine training at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis and at the University of Washington in Seattle, he pursued his fellowship training in nephrology at the University of Washington under the direction of Dr. Belding H. Scribner and Dr. Benjamin J. Trump. Dr. Tisher served for three years in the military at the Walter Reed Hospital and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D. C. before he joined the faculty at Duke University School of Medicine in 1969.

In 1980, he accepted an appointment as professor of medicine and pathology and chief of the Division of Nephrology, Hypertension and Renal Transplantation at the University of Florida. With regard to his research, he is best known for his structure-function studies utilizing electron microscopy to identify and define the function of the type A and B intercalated cells involved in acidification. For his contributions to research, in 1985 he was awarded the Faculty Research Prize in the Clinical Sciences at the University of Florida and was appointed to the Central Florida Kidney Center Eminent Scholar Chair in Nephrology in 1989. Dr. Tisher is recognized both nationally and internationally for his writings and research in renal anatomy, pathology and physiology. He served as editor of the premier journal of the American Society of Nephrology and edited the very popular Handbook of Nephrology and Hypertension, the House Officer Series in Nephrology, Renal Pathology With Clinical and Functional Correlations, as well as a number of others. He is past president of American Society of Nephrology.

In January 1998, Dr. Tisher accepted an appointment as senior associate dean in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida and in 1999 he was appointed to the Folke H. Peterson/Dean’s Distinguished Professorship and in 2001 was awarded the prestigious John P. Peters Award from the American Society of Nephrology (the highest nephrology award given). In April 2002 Dr Tisher was named Interim Dean of the College of Medicine and in September 2002 he was named dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Florida and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society this same year. In early 2006 the Florida Medical Business publication identified Dr. Tisher among the top 10 influential physicians in Florida. Following his tenure as Dean in May 2007, he began serving as Associate Vice President for Program Development at the University of Florida.

The Tisher lectureship, endowed by Drs. R. Glenn Davis, Louis Gregory, and Charles Hayes, honors Dr. Tisher,  who was Chief of the Renal Division (1980-1998) and Dean of the College of Medicine (2002-2007). He has made many contributions in basic research, education (past editor of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and editor of several important textbooks in nephrology) and leadership (including President of the American Society of Nephrology, Treasurer of the International Society of Nephrology and recipient of the John P. Peters Award of theASN). The Professorship was initiated in 2004, and has had an illustrious list of speakers. The distinguished nephrologists who have been past Tisher visiting professors include: