Maria I. New, M.D.

Biosketch

Dr. Maria I. New, Professor of Pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is one of the nation's leading pediatric endocrinologists. She has conducted pioneering research in the area of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), a term used to describe a family of monogenic autosomal recessive disorders of steroidogenesis in which enzymatic defects result in impaired synthesis of cortisol by the adrenal cortex. In addition, Dr. New discovered a new form of hypertension, Apparent Mineralocorticoid Excess (AME), which opened a new field of receptor biology. She was also the first to describe dexamethasone suppressible hyperaldosteronism, another form of low renin hypertension. In 1999, she reported what may be the first example of transcription factor defect in human beings.

Dr. New earned a B.A. from Cornell and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her house staff training and postgraduate work has been at Cornell. She was chair of the department of pediatrics at Cornell from 1980 to 2002, and was founding director of the Children's Clinical Research Center at Cornell. Dr. New was Harold and Percy Uris Professor of Pediatric Edncorinology and Metabolism at Weill Cornell until 2004.

Former president of the Endocrine Society and a member of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, Dr. New has edited or co edited 12 medical textbooks. She has also written or co written more than 500 research papers and served as editor in chief of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. She has trained more than 100 fellows in pediatric endocrinology.

Dr. New is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous honors including: the Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award; the Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Clinical Investigator Award from the American Endocrine Society; the University of Pennsylvania Distinguished Graduate Award; the 1996 Dale Medal, the highest award given by the British Endocrine Society; and the 2002 Fred Conrad Koch Award, the highest award given by the American Endocrine Society. Dr. New has been inducted into the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Hall of Honor.