Curt D. Sigmund

Curt D. Sigmund is the James J. Smith & Catherine Welsch Smith Professor of Physiology and Chair of the Physiology Department at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). Previously, he held the Roy J. Carver Chair in Hypertension Research and chaired the Pharmacology Department at the University of Iowa. His research focuses on central nervous system and vascular mechanisms regulating blood pressure via the renin-angiotensin system, PPAR-gamma, and Cullin-3/RhoBTB1 pathways. He has published over 250 papers and trained ~50 PhD/postdoc students, many now in academic roles globally.

Leadership roles include Chair-Elect of the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension, Chair of the American Physiological Society Publications Committee, and Associate Director of MCW’s Cardiovascular Research Center. His lab is located within MCW’s Cardiovascular Research Center, focusing on transgenic/knockout models to study hypertension and vascular dysfunction mechanisms.

Key awards include the 2022 COH Mid-Career Award for Research Excellence and the 2023 Walter B. Cannon Award Lecture. Research emphasizes brain RAS signaling, vascular stiffness, and mitochondrial dysfunction in hypertension/preeclampsia. Collaborators include postdocs (e.g., Nakagawa, Silva Junior) and a team managing mouse colonies and molecular physiology experiments.