Researcher Spotlight: Robert Gaynes

What is your professional background?
I am a distinguished physician and professor at Emory University School of Medicine. I graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed residency training in internal medicine in Chicago. I worked as an EIS officer in CDC’s Hospital Infections Program and finalized my training in infectious diseases at the University of Chicago. After working at CDC for over 20 years, I joined Emory full-time in 2009. I am also an attending physician at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.  

In what division do you work, and who is your mentor? 
I work in the Division of Infectious Diseases. Over the years, I have had many mentors: Drs. Pierce Gardner, Robert Weinstein, Sherwin Kabins, Stephan Lerner, Bill Martone, and David Rimland, to name a few.

What do you like most about Emory?
Emory has given me great opportunities to teach, a passion of mine for which I received the Dean’s Teaching Award in 2018. I teach in the classroom, including several courses on the history of medicine and at the bedside in Infectious Diseases, and as the site director at the VA for M3s in internal medicine. I even taught two undergraduate courses in an Emory Study Abroad Program in Paris.  

What is your favorite movie or TV show? 
It is a toss-up between ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad’. Growing up, I loved the TV show ‘M*A*S*H.’

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I play racquetball, enjoy gourmet cooking, and love to travel, especially to Paris.

What is a fun fact about you?
One year when I was at CDC, I played on a softball team with members of the Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases; the team was called the ‘Burning Sensations.’