Announcement about Dr. Kevin Roth

Dear CUIMC community: 

I am writing to share with you that Kevin A. Roth, MD, PhD, has decided to step down effective August 31, 2023, from his positions as Pathologist-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Professor and Chair of the Columbia University Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. Dr. Roth has been an exemplary chair, strengthening the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology in significant and lasting ways. We are exceedingly fortunate to have had him serve in these leadership roles for the past seven years.  

The twin legacies of Dr. Roth’s time as chair are his success in firmly establishing the Department’s research prowess, and the mentorship he provided for both new and established faculty. His commitment to equity and inclusion is reflected in new departmental initiatives and significant progress in faculty diversity. 

Under Dr. Roth, the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology steadily increased its total NIH funding, raising its rank in NIH funding to third in the nation among pathology departments. Dr. Roth was instrumental in establishing a new laboratory for the molecular diagnosis of cancer at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and leading the development of the Interdepartmental Genetic Counseling Program. Joining with the Institute of Genomic Medicine, the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology also created a cutting edge CLIA-certified laboratory for investigating germline diseases. Laboratory medicine and anatomic pathology clinical service was dramatically expanded as now evidenced by over thirty areas of subspecialty diagnostic expertise. 

This environment of groundbreaking scientific discovery allowed Dr. Roth to recruit a superb group of clinicians and scientists to the Department. During his time as chair, the Department added twelve physician-scientist faculty members, six basic science investigators, 16 at the junior level and two at the professor level, and four physician-scientist residency training positions. Two faculty members, Riccardo Dalla-Favera and Carol Mason, were elected to the National Academy of Sciences in this period. 

These advances proved essential in meeting the urgent demands of the pandemic. The Department of Pathology and Cell Biology was at the forefront of offering molecular testing for COVID and the first department to provide a specimen resource for COVID research at Columbia. The Department delivered essential scholarship by publishing approximately one hundred COVID-related manuscripts and the most definitive study to date of the effects of COVID on the brain. 

Before coming to Columbia, Dr. Roth was chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and inaugural Director of the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center. He is past Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, and the American Journal of Pathology. 

I will soon be initiating a search process and naming a committee to find Dr. Roth’s successor. For now, please join me in expressing our gratitude and admiration for the many contributions made by Dr. Roth to the fields of pathology and cell biology, the Department he has led so ably, the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. 

All my best, 

Katrina Armstrong, MD 
Chief Executive Officer, Columbia University Irving Medical Center 
Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons