Long before Mark T. Gladwin, M.D. ’91, became one of the nation’s leading physician-scientists, his path was shaped at the bedside.
As a student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, he was immersed early into patient care at Jackson Memorial Hospital, learning from renowned clinicians and scientists while caring for people with some of medicine’s most complex illnesses. That experience, he said, gave him the foundation for a career that would reshape the understanding of vascular and sickle cell disease and led him to the highest levels of academic medicine.
This year, the Miller School Medical Alumni Association honored Dr. Gladwin with its Hall of Fame Award, the institution’s highest alumni honor for graduates whose achievements have profoundly advanced medicine and science.
“The Miller School immersed me in firsthand patient care from the very beginning,” said Dr. Gladwin, who graduated from the six-year medical honors program. “That early clinical experience provided an extraordinary foundation for everything that followed.”
A Front-Row Seat to Academic Medicine
At the Miller School, Dr. Gladwin’s education unfolded within the intensity of a major academic medical center. His training coincided with the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a defining moment that revealed the power of academic medicine to bring together science, clinical care and perseverance to improve patients’ lives and alter the course of diseases.
Mentors helped guide him toward internal medicine and research. Classmates challenged him to think more boldly. Together, they helped shape the confidence and ambition that would define his career. “The Miller School gave me the confidence to lead and the courage to tackle problems no one had solved before,” he said.
Questions Rooted in Patients
Dr. Gladwin’s patient-centered approach took him to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he spent 13 years pursuing questions in blood flow, vascular biology and disease.
His discoveries established nitrite as a fundamental biological signaling molecule and identified pulmonary hypertension as a major complication of sickle cell disease. The findings opened new paths for research and treatment and continue to influence cardiovascular, pulmonary and hematology care worldwide.
Along the way, he authored more than 500 peer-reviewed publications and co-authored several widely used textbooks, resources that have helped educate generations of physicians around the world. “Every scientific question began with a patient, and every discovery was driven by the goal of improving care,” said Dr. Gladwin.
"Every scientific question began with a patient, and every discovery was driven by the goal of improving care."
The Mentor Who Sparked a Publishing Legacy
Mark T. Gladwin, M.D. ’91, traces the beginnings of his academic publishing career to the mentorship of Stephen Goldberg, M.D., professor emeritus at the University of Miami. Dr. Goldberg, founder of the Made Ridiculously Simple medical textbook series, encouraged Dr. Gladwin and fellow medical student William Trattler, M.D., to write Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple while they were still in training. Since its publication in 1995, the textbook has become a bestselling resource for medical students, residents and practicing physicians, helping generations of learners master a complex subject with clarity and confidence.
The Reach of Mentorship
Dr. Gladwin’s career has also been marked by leadership, first in several roles at the NIH, then as chair of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Since 2022, he has served as the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Yet for all the discoveries, publications and leadership titles, he counts mentorship among the most meaningful measures of his career. “I love nurturing and supporting young physicians and faculty to become future leaders,” he said. “When you build strong teams and help others succeed, your impact is far greater than anything you can accomplish alone.”
The ripple effect is visible across academic medicine. Physicians and scientists he has mentored now lead departments, research programs and medical centers nationwide.
A Full-Circle Honor
For Dr. Gladwin, receiving the Miller School Hall of Fame Award was both a professional milestone and a personal homecoming. It also is a connection that continues through his son, Brandon, a second-year M.D./Ph.D. student at the Miller School.
“I am indebted to those who taught me to work hard, think boldly and pursue medicine with both intellectual curiosity and passion,” he said.
"The Miller School gave me the confidence to lead and the courage to tackle problems no one had solved before.”
