LSU has named Dr. Petter Bjornstad as Senior Vice Chancellor and Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, pending approval by the LSU Board of Supervisors.
Dr. Bjornstad is a nationally recognized physician-scientist and currently serves as Executive Director of the UW Medicine Diabetes Institute, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, and the Raisbeck Endowed Chair of Diabetes Research at the University of Washington. His research is reshaping understanding of how metabolic disease affects the heart and kidneys.
“The recruitment of Dr. Petter Bjornstad is another important step in advancing LSU’s research enterprise and expanding the impact of Pennington Biomedical,” said LSU Chancellor Dr. Jim Dalton. “His exceptional record of discovery, collaboration and leadership in diabetes and kidney disease makes him an outstanding choice to lead the next chapter of Pennington Biomedical. We are excited to welcome him to LSU and to support his vision for translating world-class science into better health for Louisiana and beyond.”
Dalton also offered his appreciation to those who participated in the search process and thanked Dr. Jennifer Rood, who has served as Interim Senior Vice Chancellor and Executive Director since January.
“I am deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to this search, particularly Dr. Eric Ravussin and Dr. Stefan Pasiakos for their leadership on the search committee,” Dalton said. “I also want to offer my sincere thanks to Dr. Jennifer Rood for her outstanding service as interim executive director. Her dedication to Pennington Biomedical, its people and its mission has provided stability and continuity during this transition and helped position the Center for continued success.”
A search committee of faculty, staff, administrators and partners, along with Spencer Stuart – an internationally recognized executive search firm with deep experience recruiting leaders for biomedical research institutions – led the search, which included an outstanding pool of candidates from top institutions globally. Dr. Bjornstad will begin as Senior Vice Chancellor and Executive Director effective June 30, 2027.
The Senior Vice Chancellor and Executive Director serves as the chief executive, administrative and strategic leader for one of the nation’s premier institutions in nutrition, obesity and metabolic health research. Reporting to Chancellor Dalton and collaborating closely with the Senior Vice Chancellors in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport, Dr. Bjornstad will oversee strategic planning, research operations, fiscal stewardship, philanthropy and external partnerships, while fostering an environment that supports scientific excellence across basic, clinical and population research programs. The role champions initiatives that improve the health and well-being of Louisiana’s residents.
“Louisiana carries one of the heaviest burdens of obesity and diabetes in the country, and Pennington Biomedical has spent nearly four decades building the science to do something about it,” Dr. Bjornstad said. “The opportunity now is to carry that science into the heart, kidney and liver disease that follows obesity and diabetes, and to bring it to children and adults across the state and well beyond it. The measure is value returned to Louisiana: patients reached in every parish, discoveries that change care, trainees who build their careers here, and research funding that comes into the state because the work is here.”
Dr. Bjornstad studies cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) disease across the lifespan in young people and adults with obesity, prediabetes, and Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. His team combines multimodal imaging, including state-of-the-art PET and MRI of the heart and kidney, with detailed physiology studies and multi-omics analysis of tissue to uncover the molecular drivers of CKM disease. These insights inform mechanistic clinical trials of new therapies, including SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 and other incretin-based medicines. Data science runs through all of this work.
Dr. Bjornstad has published 270 peer-reviewed papers, including in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Medicine, The Lancet and Circulation. An elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, he leads eight active NIH R01 and U01 grants as principal or multiple principal investigator and has mentored more than 40 trainees.
“My family and I are moving to Baton Rouge, and I intend to be here for a long time,” Dr. Bjornstad said. “I am grateful to Chancellor Dalton, President Rousse, the Pennington faculty, the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation and the Pennington family for their confidence, and to Dr. Jennifer Rood and her leadership team for the shape the Center is in.”
About LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center
The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of medical discovery as it relates to understanding the triggers of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. Pennington Biomedical has the vision to lead the world in promoting nutrition and metabolic health and eliminating metabolic disease through scientific discoveries that create solutions from cells to society. The center conducts basic, clinical and population research, and is a campus in the LSU System.
The research enterprise at Pennington Biomedical includes over 600 employees within a network of 44 clinics and research laboratories, and 16 highly specialized core service facilities. Its scientists and physician-scientists are supported by research trainees, lab technicians, nurses, dietitians and other support personnel. Pennington Biomedical is a globally recognized, state-of-the-art research institution in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
For more information, see www.pbrc.edu .