E. Dale Abel, the Williams S. Adams Distinguished Professor and Chair of the department of medicine in the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been awarded the Order of Distinction in the Rank of Commander by the Government of Jamaica. Considered one of the nation’s highest honors, the award recognizes Jamaicans who have made a significant impact across medicine, education, public service, business, culture, and community development.
Dr. Abel, who serves as executive medical director at UCLA Health, is known for his work in endocrine and metabolic research. Throughout his career, he has discovered important insights into the contribution of mitochondrial dysfunction and aberrant insulin signaling to heart failure risk in diabetes.
Before his career at UCLA, Dr. Abel was the John B. Stokes Chair in Diabetes Research and director of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center in the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. Earlier, he taught at the University of Utah.
Dr. Abel earned his medical degree from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, and his Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar. He completed training in internal medicine at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and in endocrinology at Harvard University.
