Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, is the first recipient of the Joseph A. Vita Award, a new award established by the American Heart Association’s Scientific Publishing Committee to honor Joseph  A. Vita, a renowned cardiologist and founder of the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The award recognizes an investigator whose published work has had a transformative impact on basic, translational, or clinical cardiovascular research.

Wu is the director of the Cardiovascular Institute and a professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Radiology. His research lab specializes in gene therapy, stem cell biology, molecular imaging, and drug discovery.