Researcher Spotlight: NSU Professor Receives World Class Faculty Award for Global Contributions to Science and Medicine

Nancy Klimas, M.D.

NSU researcher and faculty member Nancy Klimas, M.D., was recently named the World Class Faculty Award recipient by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance at its 2016 Mid-Year Luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale.

“It is an honor to highlight Dr. Klimas as the Alliance’s 2016 World Class Faculty award recipient,” said Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance. “She embodies NSU’s dedication to the advancement of life science research, which is of key importance to our community’s economic vitality.”

The World Class Faculty Award is presented annually as part of the Alliance’s “Educational Excellence Builds Business” campaign. The campaign showcases the high quality of Greater Fort Lauderdale’s pre-K–20 education system and the outstanding quality of the local workforce including the “world class” faculty who are nationally or internationally known in their fields.

Dr. Klimas serves as professor and chair of the Department of Clinical Immunology in NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. She led the establishment of NSU’s Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine in 2013 and currently serves as its director. She has achieved international recognition for her research and clinical efforts in multi-symptom disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, Gulf War illness, Parkinson’s disease, and fibromyalgia.

“Dr. Klimas is a rock star in research and medicine,” said NSU President Dr. George Hanbury. “As a major asset to the Broward County and South Florida community, there is no one more deserving of this honor.”

Dr. Klimas has recruited some of the brightest minds in research to Broward County, ranging from immunologists and microbiologists to neurosurgeons and physicists, who collaborate in an effort to find better treatments and cures for diseases that often do not receive the attention they deserve. Under her leadership, the Institute has grown to more than 50 employees and secured more than $10 million in external federal funding (sponsored research, training, and service programs) during its few short years in existence. Dr. Klimas’ team has secured an additional $8 million in funding for its work at the Miami VA.

The Institute’s research and clinical facilities will soon be located in NSU’s Center for Collaborative Research, one of the largest and most advanced research facilities in Florida, with state-of-the-art laboratories that are expected to be the focal point of research and technology transfer in Broward County.

“Dr. Klimas is an integral leader and one of our most outstanding researchers and clinicians,” said Elaine M. Wallace, D.O., M.S., M.S., M.S., dean, NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. “She is an excellent mentor to developing faculty researchers and students. She adds wisdom and a sense of humor to our collegium of chairs that is uniquely Nancy.”

Dr. Klimas is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a diplomate in diagnostic laboratory immunology. She is a past president of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME) and is also a member of the VA Research Advisory Committee for GWI, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) P2P CFS committee, and was among a select group of experts who served on the Institute of Medicine’s ME/CFS review panel that redefined the illness on a federal level.

Dr. Klimas has advised three U.S. Secretaries of Health and Human Services during her repeated service on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services CFS Advisory Committee. She is currently funded by the VA, Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study these complex disorders using a systems biology approach with a strong focus on illness models that lead to therapeutic targets and clinical trials.

Among many other honors, Dr. Klimas was the recipient of the 2014 Perpich Award by the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME) for distinguished community service. This award is presented to a distinguished scientist, physician, or health care worker every two years at the IACFS/ME conferences and is the highest honor in the field.

Dr. Klimas also received NSU’s 5^th Annual Provost’s Research and Scholarship Award in October 2015. The purpose of the award is to recognize a faculty member who has demonstrated significant achievement in support of NSU’s mission to foster scholarship, intellectual inquiry, and academic excellence.

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