Jean E. Robillard, M.D., is from Montreal where he earned bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Montreal. He completed an internship at the Hôtel Dieu Hospital, residency training in pediatrics at Ste. Justine Hospital in Montreal, and pediatric nephrology fellowships at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Though a native Canadian, Robillard is no stranger to Iowa. Following his fellowship training, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1974 as an Assistant Professor. He was later promoted to Professor in 1982 and appointed as Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics in 1987 while he was also Director of the Pediatric Nephrology Division. As a pediatric nephrologist, he was an integral member of the UI Hospitals and Clinics transplant team.
In 1996, Robillard moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to become Chair and Professor of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School and physician-in-chief at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, where he served until his return to Iowa in 2003 to begin his tenure as Dean of the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
Robillard is a pediatric nephrologist whose work focuses on the developmental physiology of the kidney. He has published more than 220 scientific papers during his career, which have contributed to many advances in the field.
In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 2001 he was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Board of Pediatrics. In 2002, Robillard received the College’s Distinguished Alumnus Award for Achievement.
The Vice President for Medical Affairs heads an administrative structure to better integrate three UI patient care organizations: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the Carver College of Medicine, and University of Iowa Physicians.