I graduated from MIT and received my medical degree from Harvard Medical School. I completed my internship and residency in medicine at New York University-Bellevue Hospital Medical Center. I subsequently completed fellowships in endocrinology and metabolism, and atherosclerosis and metabolism, at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. I was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University in 1983, where I served as Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine and Nutrition and was the Dickinson Richards Professor of Medicine. In 2014, I became the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at New York University Langone School of Medicine. Beginning in 2025, I relinquished this role to concentrate on my scientific research. I have published over 300 articles, including numerous book chapters, editorials, and reviews. I have co-authored chapters on lipid disorders in the 14th and 15th editions of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine and several editions of Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. My research focuses on abnormalities of lipoprotein metabolism, macrovascular disease in diabetes, and the role of triglycerides in atherosclerosis. I have received grant support for several investigational studies involving the atherogenicity of apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins, the regulation of plasma triglycerides by lipase enzymes, diabetic macrovascular disease, and lipid uptake and toxicity in the heart. Among my honors is a MERIT Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. I was also honored to give the R. Levy Lecture and the Lyman Duff Lecture at Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association as well as the E. Bierman Lecture on diabetes and heart disease at the 2010 American Diabetes Association Meeting. II also previously served as chair of the NIH Metabolism and CADO (Cellular Aspects of Diabetes and Obesity) study sections and was a standing member of the MIM (myocardial ischemia and metabolism) study section.