Samuel Rahbar

Background

Rahbar was born into a Jewish family in the Iranian city of Hamedan in 1929.

Education

He obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tehran in 1953 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in immunology from the same university in 1963.

Career

From 1952 to 1960 Rahbar pursued mainly clinical activities in Abadan and Tehran, returning to academic life as a postdoctoral fellow in 1959. After earning his Doctor of Philosophy, he was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1963 and to Associate Professor in 1965 in the Department of Immunology. Rahbar spent 1968-1969 as a visiting scientist at the Department of Medicine of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he collaborated with Helen M. Ranney.

After his return to Tehran, Rahbar was promoted to full professor in 1970 and to director of the Department of Applied Biology in the University of Tehran Medical School in Tehran.

1979 Rahbar became a researcher and professor of diabetes in the Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism at the City of Hope in Duarte, California (in Los Angeles County). The award is named after the awardee and is called the Samuel Rahbar Outstanding Discovery Award.

Achievements

• In 2012, the American Diabetes Association (American Dental Association) bestowed a special, one-time National Scientific Achievement Award on Rahbar in recognition of his discovery of HbA1c as a marker of glycemic status in persons with diabetes.