Dr. Foster holds the John Denis McGarry, Ph.D. Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and Metabolic Research in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. A graduate of Southwestern, he took his residency in Internal Medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas before moving to the NIH for a research fellowship. He returned to the faculty following his tenure at the NIH and was elected chair in 1988.
Dr. Foster is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and recently served as President of the Association of Professors of Medicine. He is currently President of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences of Texas.
At the National Institutes of Health, he was chair of the Metabolism Study Section, was a member of the NIDDK Advisory Council and served two terms on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Clinical Center.
Dr. Foster's research has focused for many years on the intermediary metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids. With his colleague, J. Denis McGarry, he discovered the malonyl-CoA regulatory system for fatty acid oxidation and ketogenesis, for which he received the Banting Medal. He received the Robert H. Williams Distinguished Chair of Medicine Award of the Associate of Professors of Medicine in February 2001.
Dr. Foster was Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation from 1972-1977 and was Editor of Diabetes from 1978-1983. He is co-editor (with J.D. Wilson) of the Williams Textbook of Endocrinology and writes for a number of other textbooks.
