Interview with Russell V. Luepker

Russell Luepker was born October 1, 1942 in Chicago, IL. He earned his bachelor’s in history at Grinnell College in 1964. He graduated from the University of Rochester Medical School in 1969. While at the University of Rochester, he was an NIH research fellow in cardiology at the University of Goteborg, Sweden. He completed his internship at the University of California at San Diego in 1970. To complete his military service, Dr. Luepker worked as assistant chief of cardiology at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland while also pursuing research at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland from 1973 to 1974. He was appointed assistant resident and then director of the Lipid Clinic at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston while working toward his master’s in epidemiology at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, which he completed in 1976. In 1976, Dr. Luepker moved to the University of Minnesota as a professor in the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene, which became the Division of Epidemiology in 1983. He became associate director of the Division in 1986 and served as Division head from 1991 to 2004. He began serving as director of Graduate Studies for the Division in 2004. His research includes cardiovascular epidemiology, clinical trials, community disease prevention, and outcomes research. He continues to serve on the faculty in the School of Public Health.