In July 2023, we changed our name from AACC (short for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry) to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM). The following page was written prior to this rebranding and contains mentions of the association’s old name. It may contain other out-of-date information as well.
1995 AACC International Fellowship Award
Robert Rej will receive the 17th annual award, sponsored by Becton Dickinson Vacutainer Systems, Becton Dickinson and Co.
Rej earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Albany Medical College in 1976.Currently he is associate professor of biomedical sciences at the State University of New York School of Public Health and director of Clinical Chemistry at the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health. He has served as a member of the Board of Editors for Clinical Chemistry, where he was both Reviews Editor and member of the Executive Committee, and he has been an associate editor of the journal since 1992. For 10 years he served on the editorial board of Clinica Chimica Acta and currently serves on the editorial boards of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Enzymology Communications and Enzyme and Proteins. He is author of more than 75 papers and book chapters, and over 100 other publications, many devoted to clinical enzymology and assessments of clinical laboratory quality.
Rej is currently a member of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Beckman Conference Committee, and of the Laboratory Information Systems and the Lipids & Lipoproteins Divisions. He has served as member of several AACC committees, including the Committee on Science, Education Committee, Nominating Committee, and National Meeting Organizing Committee, and has been a member and chair of the Standards Committee and chair of the AACC Awards Committee. He has also been active in NCCLS, serving for several years on the Council for the National Reference System for the Clinical Laboratory, and as a member of the Area Committee on Clinical Chemistry. He is now chair of the NCCLS Standards Management Committee, and is a member of the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists. He has been a member and chair of the IFCC Expert Panel on Enzymes and is now chair of the IFCC Congress Committee. In 1986, he was elected to the Executive Board of the International Society for Clinical Enzymology and has served as its secretary.
Rej has testified before the US Congress on laboratory issues and is a member of the FDA Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology Advisory Panel. He has lectured extensively throughout the Americas, eastern and western Europe, Australia, and Asia. He was recipient of a World Health Organization Fellowship, the AACC National Young Investigator Award in 1978, the Sendroy Award of the Upstate-NY Section of AACC in 1976, and the 1985 Miriam Reiner Award of the Capital Section of AACC.
1978 Outstanding Scientific Achievements by a Young Investigator
Robert Rej will receive the AACC Young Investigator Award, for a manuscript entitled “Aspartate Aminotransferase Isoenzymes: Tissue Levels and Quantitative Distribution in Human Liver.” The award is sponsored by Hycel. Although this is the third time it has been given, it is the first year that it has been an official AACC award.
Dr. Rej, a native of Niskayuna, New York, received the B.S. degree in chemistry from LeMoyne College, Syracuse, and the Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the Albany Medical College of Union University. He joined the AACC in 1972 while a biochemist at the Division of Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health. He now serves as research scientist and section head for clinical chemistry at the Division.
Two fields of special interest to Dr. Rej are clinical enzymology and external and internal quality control. In these two areas he has published over 20 papers. He has served on the AACC committee for the Conference on the Development of Reference Materials and Methods for Clinical Chemistry and is presently a member of the Subcommittee on Enzymes of the AACC Standards Committee. He was an alternate member to the NCCLS Panel on Methodological Principles and is also a member of that organization’s Subcommittee on Enzymes. He is a Foundation Member of the International Society for Clinical Enzymology and is now the Associate Member for the U.S. on the Expert Panel on Enzymes of the IFCC.
In 1976 he presented the Sendroy Award of the Upstate New York Section of the AACC.