Dr. Haddad

Gabriel G. Haddad, M.D., is Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience, Vice Dean for Children's Academic Programs and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego.  He is also the Physician-in-Chief and Chief Scientific Officer at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego.

Dr. Haddad received his medical education and initial medical training at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, followed by additional training at the University of Texas in Houston.  He then moved to Columbia University in New York to do his fellowship and joined the faculty.  At Columbia University, he was the director of the Sleep Laboratory in the Division and trained many fellows. He started his faculty career there and advanced the field of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and the understanding of its pathophysiology.  He was also the first to describe a disease that is now known as Haddad's syndrome, involving poor drive to breathe (secondary to central pathology), Hirschsprung's disease and abnormally low variability in heart rate.

After 13 years at Columbia, he was recruited to Yale University to direct the Respiratory Medicine Section and serve as Chief of Clinical Service in Respiratory Medicine, and shortly thereafter he became Professor of Cellular & Molecular Physiology at the same institution.  He was appointed Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2002, and subsequently moved to UCSD and Rady Children's in 2005. 

Dr. Haddad has published over 383 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and authored numerous medical texts including the landmark Basic Mechanisms of Pediatric Respiratory Disease.  He has been on the Long Term Planning Committee, as well as Chair of the Respiratory Neurobiology and Sleep Assembly of the American Thoracic Society and Chair at the NIH for a number of conferences on SIDS and Sleep.  He sits on numerous national committees such as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and March of Dimes, and is a member of 18 distinguished medical societies, many in a leadership role.  He has held numerous editorial appointments; is a reviewer for 30 respected medical journals; is the recipient of numerous awards and honors; and has been invited to speak at over 160 national and international conferences.  He was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2008.  He is also a member of the Board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.