Dr. Bakris received his medical degree from the Chicago Medical School and completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine where he also did a research fellowship in Physiology and Biophysics. He then completed fellowships in Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Chicago. From 1988 to 1991 he served as Director of Renal Research at the Ochsner Clinic and was a faculty member of Tulane University School of Medicine. He was also Professor and Vice Chairman of Preventive Medicine and Director of the Rush University Hypertension Center in Chicago, IL (USA) from 1993 until 2006. Currently, he is Professor of Medicine and Director, Hypertensive Diseases Unit in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Dr. Bakris has published over 400 articles and book chapters in the areas of kidney disease hypertension and progression of nephropathy. He is the Editor or Co-Editor of eight books, all dealing with Kidney Disease, Diabetes and the role of Hypertension and include: The Kidney and Hypertension, Hypertension: a Clinician’s Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment and Hypertension: Principles and Practice, Handbook of Hypertension, The Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease, Therapeutic Strategies in Hypertension, Microalbuminuria and Cardiovascular Risk and Lower Extremity Arterial Disease. Additionally, he is the Associate Editor of the International Textbook of Cardiology. He has also served as the co-principal investigator of an NIH Clinical Research training grant (K30) to train clinical researchers (1999-2004). He chaired the National Kidney Foundation Consensus report on blood pressure and impact on renal disease progression (2000). He has also served on many national committees including: the JNC 7 executive and writing committee (2003), the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guideline Committee (2003-2004), the National Kidney Foundation (K-DOQI) Blood Pressure Guideline committee (2002-2004), the National Kidney Foundation (K-DOQI) Diabetes Guideline committee (2003-2005), the JNC VI writing committee (1997), and the NIH National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group on Hypertension and Renal Disease (1994). He also serves as an expert-consultant to the Cardio-renal Advisory Board of the FDA (1993-present). Dr. Bakris is also the past- president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (2000-2002). He is the current Editor of Am J Nephrology and the Hypertension Section Editor of Up-to-Date. He serves on more that 12 editorial boards including Diabetes Care, Kidney International, Nephrology, Dialysis & Transpl. Hypertension, J Clin Hypertension and J of Hypertension.