Cornfield was appointed the first holder of the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in December 2005. He is director of the Center for Excellence in Pulmonary Biology at Stanford University, and chief of the divisions of pediatric pulmonary, asthma, and sleep medicine at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Cornfield earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and completed his residency at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was pediatric house officer. He later completed his fellowship in pediatric pulmonology and critical care medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver Children’s Hospital, and National Jewish Hospital and did postdoctoral training at the Cardiovascular Pulmonary Lab at the University of Colorado, Denver.
Previously, Cornfield served as professor of pediatrics, physiology, and surgery at the University of Minnesota, and director of the division of pediatric pulmonary and critical care medicine and interim head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital.
The Cornfield lab uses multiple state-of-the-art approaches to address fundamental questions related to oxygen sensing, regulation of pulmonary vascular tone, determinants of lung injury, the lung microbiome, the transition of the pulmonary circulation at birth, and the uterine ion channel biology that underlies preterm labor. Areas of research beyond the bench include clinical lung injury, violence prevention in developing countries, microlending in Africa, optimizing the electronic medical record, and training and retention of the next generation of physician-scientists. Funding sources for the Cornfield lab include the NHLBI, NICHD, the American Heart Association, the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Cornfield is an active member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Pediatric Society, American Thoracic Society, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Past President of the Society for Pediatric Research. He serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology, Pediatrics, and Pulmonary Circulation. He served as a permanent member of study sections of the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI, NICHD), the March of Dimes, and the American Heart Association. He also served as a member of AAP committee on pediatric education, PAS advocacy committee, the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Physician-Scientist Advisory Committee, and the Federation of Pediatric Organizations task force on training and scholarship.
Cornfield is the recipient of numerous professional honors including the Daniel C. Darrow Award from Children’s Mercy Hospital, the Richard B. Rowe Award for outstanding achievements in perinatal cardiology from the Society for Pediatric Research, the Established-Investigator and Clinician-Scientist Awards from the American Heart Association, and the Clinician of the Year Award from the University of Minnesota Medical School; and on multiple occasions, has been recognized as an Outstanding Faculty Educator, “Top Pediatrician,” and “Best Doctor.”
