Two distinguished, recently retired faculty members, Peter Anderson, D.V.M., Ph.D., a professor in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, and Gene Siegal, M.D., Ph.D., Robert W. Mowry Endowed Professor, Division of Anatomic Pathology, have achieved emeritus status in the Department of Pathology. The decision was made by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees on June 6.
Anderson retired on December 31, 2024, after 43 years of service in the Department of Pathology. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Washington State University in 1981 before completing a Veterinary and Comparative Pathology Residency Program, a joint residency between UAB and Auburn University. Upon completion in 1984, Anderson pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in UAB’s Mechanism of Hypertension Program. In 1986, he earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Cardiovascular Pathology from UAB before joining the Department of Pathology as faculty.
Anderson’s research expertise is focused on cardiac hypertrophy, atherosclerosis and intravascular stents. His research career has resulted in 7 patents, one of which was purchased by Boston Scientific to develop a drug-coated stent. This stent design has been used to treat thousands of cardiac disease patients. Anderson donated proceeds from this patent to fund the Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair in Pathology, named in honor of his parents, Reverend Robert Anderson Jr. and Ruth Anderson.
An impactful educator and mentor, Anderson taught his first course for medical students at UAB in 1984. Since then, he has received numerous teaching and mentorship awards. In 2023, Anderson was elected as one of the most accomplished educators in the specialty of pathology and laboratory medicine and was chosen to serve as part of the inaugural class of Distinguished Pathology Educators by the Association of Pathology Chairs.
Siegal retired on December 31, 2024, after 34 years of service in the Department of Pathology. Siegal earned his
medical degree in 1974 from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky. While a pathology resident at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, he pursued a Ph.D. in experimental pathology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, awarded in 1979, and followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemistry at the National Cancer Institute. Siegal undertook a fellowship in surgical pathology at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology under the direction of renowned pathologist, Dr. Juan Rosai.
In 1982, Siegal joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor and tenured in 1988. While there, he earned a certificate in hospital management from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business Administration in Chapel Hill. In 1990, he was recruited to UAB as division director of Anatomic Pathology and professor in the UAB Department of Pathology, a position he held for a quarter of a century. Siegal simultaneously served as a senior scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and as a professor in both the Departments of Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology and Surgery since 1991. In 1995, he began serving as a senior scientist in the Comprehensive Center for Healthy Aging.
Siegal served as both a senior scientist and founding member of the Cell Adhesion and Matrix Research Center, the Center for Metabolic Bone Disease, the Gene Therapy Center, the BioMatrix Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Center and the Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone and Autoimmunity Center. In addition to these roles, he served as senior scientist in the Nephrology Research and Training Center and the Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering.
In 2008, Siegal was named the inaugural Robert W. Mowry Endowed Professor of Pathology and the Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Pathology. Siegal has served as interim chair of the department twice over the course of his career at UAB and more than 3 years as interim chair of the UAB Department of Genetics. He has been an attending pathologist at UAB and its affiliate hospitals for his entire career and has held UAB’s CLIA license as its medical director of hospital laboratories. The UAB Board of Trustees honored Siegal by naming him a Distinguished Professor in 2021, the only pathologist at UAB having received this honor.
“We are thrilled to celebrate Drs. Anderson and Siegal in their respective careers at UAB, each spanning decades in the Department of Pathology,” said Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, M.D., Ph.D., Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair. “We are privileged to work with both individuals and know that their contributions will be felt for years to come. We thank you very much for your service to the institution and the department.”