Robin Patel

Robin Patel is a Canadian born microbiologist and Elizabeth P. and Robert E. Allen Professor of Individualized Medicine, a Professor of Microbiology, and a Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. She is widely recognized as a leader in the field of clinical microbiology and has held a variety of leadership positions including 2019–2020 President of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and Director of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) Laboratory Center of the National institutes of Health. She is currently the Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic, and Director of the Mayo Clinic's Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory, where she studies biofilms, antimicrobial resistance, periprosthetic joint infection and diagnostic testing of bacteria.

Personal life Born to a family of modest means in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Robin Patel and her family moved to the suburbs of Montreal, Québec, when she was four years old. Her parents are Barbara A. Foster and Nagin K. Patel, and she has two younger siblings, Janice E Patel and Harish DS Patel. She attended John Rennie High School following which she spent a year at Marianapolis College in Montreal and then matriculated to Princeton University in 1982.

Dr. Patel is married to Norbert Campeau, who is a radiologist also at the Mayo Clinic. They have two children, David and Michelle, both of whom attended Mayo High School and were named as top achievers.

Education and career Patel earned a BA degree in chemistry from Princeton University, graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi in 1985. She earned an MD from McGill University, graduating in 1989. In 2003, she received a Department of Medicine Laureate Award - Mayo Clinic, and in 2008 an Outstanding Woman in Medicine award from the Mayo Chapters of the AMSA & AMWA. In 2019, she delivered the Maxwell Finland Award Lecture at IDWeek (Washington, DC). In 2021, she was named a Distinguished Educator at Mayo Clinic. In 2022, she was the second woman ever to the Hamao Umezawa Memorial Award from the International Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and was named Mayo Clinic's Distinguished Investigator.

Patel's scientific contributions includes authorship in over 540 peer-reviewed publications and over 20 book chapters. She has served as an editor for the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID). Mayo Clinic Distinguished Investigator Award, 2022 Mayo Clinic Distinguished Educator Award, 2021 ASM Special Recognition Award, 2021 President of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), 2019-2020

Maxwell Finland Award, IDWeek (Washington, DC), 2019 Elizabeth P. and Robert E. Allen Professor of Individualized Medicine, 2017 - present BD Award for Research in Clinical Microbiology, ASM, 2015 Mayo Medical School Distinguished Service Award, 2015 Outstanding Woman in Medicine - Mayo Chapters of the AMSA & AMWA, 2008 Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology, 2012 - present Editor, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2009 - 2019 Department of Medicine Laureate Award - Mayo Clinic, 2003 Joseph E. Geraci Award for Infectious Diseases Outstanding Achievement - Mayo Clinic, 1995 William H.J. Summerskill Award in Subspecialty Trainee Research - Mayo Clinic, 1995