Robert Harrington, currently director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), will take on the position of chair of Stanford’s department of medicine beginning in July of 2012. Stanford School of Medicine Dean Philip Pizzo announced the appointment Monday in his bimonthly newsletter.

“Dr. Harrington’s breadth of knowledge, his area of research, commitment to patient care and clinical excellence, and his leadership roles at Duke and nationally make him an ideal choice for this position,” Pizzo wrote.

In the newsletter, Pizzo outlined the selection process that was used to fill the position, which was left vacant by the previous chair of the department Ralph Horwitz after his term concluded on Oct. 31, 2011. Horwitz announced that he was planning to step down from the post on July 29, 2010, in a message to the Department of Medicine and the School of Medicine Executive Committee.

Pizzo said that the search committee — led by Steve Galli, chair of the Department of Pathology — began its work in the fall of 2010, and that the eight final candidates for the position visited Stanford from June 2011 to August 2011. Pizzo wrote that he then visited the home institutions of each of these applicants and discussed the candidates with “institutional and national leaders.”

“Based on a complex register of assessments, recommendations and opinions, along with a convergence of skills and opportunities, I am very pleased we have been successful in convincing Dr. Harrington that he and his family will flourish at Stanford,” Pizzo said.

He added that Harrington was the director of “the largest such clinical research enterprise in the world,” commenting that DCRI has more than 200 faculty members, 1100 staff members and an annual operating budget of over $150 million. Pizzo called Harrington a “natural and energetic leader who is able to bring diverse groups of individuals together.”

Linda Boxer, professor of medicine, served as the interim chair of the Department of Medicine since August 2010. In his newsletter, Pizzo wrote a letter of appreciation to Boxer for her service.

“I am well aware that there are many views about how searches are conducted and concluded and what the necessary and even ideal characteristics of a department chair should be — which certainly undergo change and evolution over time,” Pizzo wrote. “But in my discussions with countless individuals during the search for a new department chair, there is no doubt that respect and admiration for Dr. Boxer and the role she has played as Interim Chair were constant and deeply valued.”

— Kurt Chirbas