For 46 years, Shlomo Melmed, MB, ChB, has helped guide Cedars-Sinai's rise from a respected community hospital to a global leader in academic medicine. That evolution dramatically accelerated during Dr. Melmed's 28 years as dean of the Medical Faculty and executive vice president of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Melmed has decided to transition to the role of dean emeritus of the Medical Faculty and executive adviser to the president and CEO at the end of 2026, or after a new dean is recruited. He will continue to serve as a distinguished professor of Medicine, conduct research and maintain his clinical practice as co-director of the Cedars-Sinai Pituitary Center. He also will continue to hold the Helene and Philip Hixon Distinguished Chair in Investigative Medicine.

"Cedars-Sinai has emerged as an international leader in medical innovation and translational scientific discovery under Dr. Melmed's leadership," said Peter L. Slavin, MD, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Health System. "His trailblazing contributions have helped turn Cedars-Sinai into a major force in academic medicine."

Since being named dean in 1998, Melmed has steadily grown the size of Cedars-Sinai's faculty-expanding it from about 100 to more than 900 currently. During this nearly three-decade period, he raised annual research expenditures from about $30 million to $580 million. Cedars-Sinai now ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals nationwide receiving research funding from the National Institutes of Health. At the same time, research space at Cedars-Sinai has grown from 90,000 square feet to 670,000 square feet. A new research building under construction on the Cedars-Sinai campus will add to this extraordinary growth.

Melmed has fostered major advances in interdisciplinary research, expanded clinical programs by creating new departments and institutes and strengthened graduate medical and research education. He established Cedars-Sinai Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and more recently, Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University.

"We are a stronger and more focused organization because of Dr. Melmed's influence," Slavin said.

Melmed is an internationally recognized physician-scientist whose research has transformed the understanding of pituitary biology and endocrine disease. His laboratory has been consistently funded by NIH since 1980. He has published and lectured on pituitary disease internationally and led the top professional societies in his field while mentoring dozens of trainees now holding prominent positions of their own.

He is a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, Master of the American College of Physicians and recipient of prestigious national and international endocrinology awards. He edits the major endocrinology textbooks and was editor-in-chief of the widely respected Endocrinology and Pituitaryjournals.

Melmed also is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and American Society for Clinical Investigation. He served on the Endocrine Society Council, as president of the International Society of Endocrinology and as president and a founding member of the Pituitary Society. Additionally, he is a member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee.

He said he looks forward to transitioning into his new role assisting Slavin and Cedars-Sinai leadership.

"Serving Cedars-Sinai and our community have been the highlight of my career in academic medicine," he said. "I am truly honored and excited to open the next chapter."

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