Friedrich C. Luft, MD

Dr. Friedrich C. Luft is professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Nephrology at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He is also the director of Franz Volhard Clinic for Cardiovascular Research at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany, and serves as adjunct professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and Hannover Medical School. 

Dr. Luft graduated cum laude (zoology) from Colorado College in 1964 and received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pa. He obtained his post-graduate training from Indiana University School of Medicine. After serving two years in the U.S. Army Medical Corp as a captain and flight surgeon, he trained as a clinical and research fellow in the Division of Nephrology at Indiana University School of Medicine.

In 1975, he was appointed as assistant professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, where he rose to the rank of professor in 1982. He served as professor of medicine from 1989-92 at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Federal Republic of Germany, before accepting his present position in 1992. 

Dr. Luft has a distinguished record of scientific and academic accomplishments as a clinician-scientist. He is internationally recognized for research work in nephrology, hypertension, physiology and genetics. His strong basic science and clinical background (he is board certified in three specialties in Germany and three in the United States) has permitted him to move easily and effectively from the “bench to the bedside."

He conducted the first studies in humans to examine the renal-pressure natriuresis mechanism and the role of ethnic differences, and he conducted seminal studies on the molecular and genetic basis for cardiovascular and renal disease in experimental animals and humans. He has published almost 500 peer-reviewed papers and scores of book chapters and reviews. 

For his outstanding contributions to basic and clinical cardiovascular and nephrology research, Dr. Luft has received many honors and awards, including the Franz Gross Prize for Research in Hypertension, Ernest Starling Award from the American Physiological Society, Max Rubner Prize for Research in Nutrition, Galenus-von-Pergamon Prize, Arthur C. Corcoran Award of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research, the Lingen Prize, Anthony Raine Award from the International Society of Nephrology, Bjorn Folkow Award from the European Society of Hypertension. He has also been named a Fellow of American College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), Council for High Blood Pressure Research, American Heart Association and the American College of Nutrition.

He also serves on numerous editorial boards and currently as associate editor of Hypertension and Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation journals. Dr. Luft states that his “...hobbies are patient care, teaching and research."