Distinguished Scientist and Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Distinguished Achievement honors reflect UTSW cardiologist’s numerous impactful discoveries
DALLAS – Nov. 09, 2026 – Joseph Hill, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and Professor of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has received two awards from the American Heart Association (AHA): the Distinguished Scientist Award, the AHA’s highest commendation, and the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) Distinguished Achievement Award, recognizing major, sustained contributions to the council’s work and the field of basic cardiovascular sciences. The awards were presented Nov. 7 at the AHA’s Scientific Sessions conference in Chicago.
“I am deeply honored and gratified to receive these awards,” Dr. Hill said. “As someone committed to the AHA’s mission of making the world a better place through cardiovascular science and medicine, I stand on the shoulders of giants both at the AHA and the team I’m blessed to work with at UT Southwestern. None of this would have happened without the support of an incredible multidisciplinary group of professionals and my wife, Beverly, who has been at my side for 43 years.”
Both awards recognize Dr. Hill’s lifetime of impactful research uncovering the molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive heart disease. His work centers on cardiac remodeling, with a particular focus on cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Using both genetic and surgical models, the Hill Lab explores how the heart adapts to disease-related stress, offering insights that continue to influence treatment strategies. Over the course of his career, Dr. Hill has published more than 280 studies.
Much of Dr. Hill’s recent research centers on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which affects tens of millions worldwide. HFpEF occurs when the heart’s pumping function is normal or near normal, but blood doesn’t circulate effectively due to impaired relaxation or increased stiffness of the left ventricle. Whereas several therapies exist for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), a less common heart failure subset, no existing treatments extend life for HFpEF patients, Dr. Hill explained.
To better understand HFpEF, he and his team developed the first animal model of this condition that truly mimics the two factors that influence its development: metabolic stress and high blood pressure. Since they introduced this model through a study published in in 2019, hundreds of academic and industry labs throughout the world have adopted it for their own HFpEF research. Recently, the Hill Lab used the model in collaboration with Philipp Scherer, Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology at UTSW and Director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center, and his colleagues. The team showed that a molecule called endotrophin appears to play a causative role in HFpEF development, findings they plan to publish soon.
“Dr. Hill’s record of scientific discovery, mentorship, and academic leadership are extraordinary and make him such a worthy recipient of this award,” said James de Lemos, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Division of Cardiology at UTSW. “Among many important research contributions, he and his research team have made seminal discoveries that advance our understanding of HFpEF and pave the way for novel interventions to treat this complex condition.”
Earlier this year, Dr. Hill, who is also Director of the Harry S. Moss Heart Center at UTSW, received the AHA Gold Heart Award – the organization’s highest volunteer honor – for his decade-long tenure as editor-in-chief of the AHA’s flagship journal, Circulation, and other volunteer roles in the cardiovascular medicine and research community.
After earning medical and doctoral degrees at Duke University, Dr. Hill completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur in Paris followed by internal medicine residency training and a clinical cardiology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2002 to become Chief of the Division of Cardiology, a position he held for 21 years before stepping down in 2023.
His many honors also include the 2025 Gill Heart and Vascular Institute Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cardiovascular Research, the 2023 Medal of Merit from the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences, the 2019 Louis and Artur Lucian Award from McGill University, and the 2018 Research Achievement Award from the International Society for Heart Research.
Dr. Hill holds the Frank M. Ryburn Jr. Chair in Heart Research and the James T. Willerson, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Diseases. Dr. Scherer holds the Gifford O. Touchstone, Jr. and Randolph G. Touchstone Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research and the Touchstone/West Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research. Dr. de Lemos holds the Sweetheart Ball - Kern Wildenthal, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Chair in Cardiology.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 28 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 26 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.