Vinod K Rustgi MD, MBA
Distinguished Professor of Medicine
GI Fellowship Program Director
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Vinod K Rustgi was born in Delhi, India but grew up in New Haven and Buffalo, NY. Always a history buff, he majored in History (as well as a science major) and graduated magna cum laude from Yale, followed by medical school at Johns Hopkins and residency at Georgetown. Subsequently, he received training as a Stanford GI Fellow (monoclonal antibody research with Dr Allen D Cooper) and the NIH where he was a Liver Diseases Fellow with Dr Jay Hoofnagle. All of these mentors had lasting influences on him and his choice of academic interests. Hepatitis C as well as Liver Transplantation were evolving fields and Dr Rustgi was fortunate enough to get involved early and learn from leading people developing those areas. What an exciting time in retrospect! Currently, he is Distinguished Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology) and is also the GI Fellowship Program Director at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He also holds Professorships in Epidemiology as well as Pathology.

He has three wonderful children, two in medicine and one in law. His oldest daughter is part of the Gastroenterology Faculty at Columbia. He is very proud of each of them and their spouses but most so of his almost 2-year-old grandson, Jamie.

Building anything is worthwhile and launching a new AGA Journal is an extremely exciting venture. This online journal will be publishing original research but will also try to incorporate subject areas and interdisciplinary work that deserves rapid dissemination.

Shanthi Srinivasan, MD
R. Bruce Logue Chair in Digestive Diseases
Professor of Medicine
Director, Division of Digestive Diseases
Department of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine

Shanthi Srinivasan was born in New York, NY and did her early education in Delhi, India and subsequently graduated from Wayne State School of Medicine. She received her Internal Medicine training and gastroenterology training from the University of Michigan and subsequently at Washington University, St. Louis completing both her clinical training and research foundation during this time. Her mentorship and training at the University of Michigan and Washington University led her to current research passion of the changes in the enteric nervous system in the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal motility disorders. She was fortunate to be guided by leaders in the field including Dr. John Wiley and Dr. Robert Heuckeroth.

She has three wonderful children, two studying Economics and one about to start his undergraduate studies at Yale. She is proud of her children and they are her constant motivation to try new opportunities. Currently, she is the Bruce Logue Endowed Professor of Medicine in the Division of Digestive Disease at Emory University. She is also part of the Neuroscience graduate program at Emory.

Dr Rustgi and Dr Srinivasan hope to hear frequently and vigorously from the readership about how to make OUR society’s venture better and better. Please weigh in! Contact us at [email protected].