John D. Imig, a 1981 graduate of LeRoy High School, is the son of Philip and Rosina Imig. He married Melinda L. Peel in 1984 and has two daughters Allyson and Emily. He earned his B.A. degree in biology from Blackburn College in 1985 and received a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Louisville in 1991. Dr. Imig moved to the Medical College of Wisconsin for postdoctoral training from 1991-1993. He subsequently accepted a faculty position in the Department of Physiology at Tulane University School of Medicine in 1993 and moved to the Medical College of Georgia in 2001. In 2008, he joined the Department of Pharmacology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and serves as Associate Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center. 

As a scientist, John is a world-renowned expert on fatty acids produced by blood vessels and their contribution to cardiovascular diseases. He has been instrumental in developing a new class of drugs for the treatment of hypertension and stroke. Dr. Imig has been awarded two patents for drugs used to reduce damage from strokes and to treat kidney and cardiovascular diseases.

Dr. Imig has authored and co-authored more than 125 publications and serves as managing editor of the publication Frontiers in Bioscience. Among Dr. Imig’s numerous awards for his cardiovascular research are the American Society of Hypertension-Monarch Pharmaceuticals Young Scholar Award (2001) and an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association (2004).