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Dr. Robert B. Diasio continues to make an everlasting footprint in the medical field. He has traveled all over the United States sharing his knowledge and passion in medicine and pharmacology. But his education started here in Genesee County where he graduated from Oakfield-Alabama as valedictorian in 1963.

Since then he has received recognition from colleges and major medical centers and was selected twice as "Best Doctor in America." And the recognition keeps on coming. On Oct. 3 at Oakfield-Alabama Middle School he will be one of four inductees attending the O-A High School Hall of Fame ceremony.

His passion may have come from his parents, Joseph and Clara Diasio, who were longtime physicians in Oakfield.

After high school he ventured on to receive his B.A. from the University of Rochester and an M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine in 1971.

Then he came back home to do internal training at Strong Memorial Hospital. He was a Fellow in Medical Oncology and in Clinical Pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute. For eight years he was a professor at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and was also the Newman H. Waters Chair and director of clinical pharmacology.

He has published more than 200 manuscripts, written reviews and has contributed chapters in several major medical textbooks.

He is the Director of the Mayo Clinic Center in Minnesota and holds the positions of William J. and Charles H. Mayo Endowed Professor as well as Consultant and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. His work at the center includes research on pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics as applied to cancer therapeutic agents. His lab is now beginning to expand into other cancer therapeutic agents and other neoplasms.

Check back tomorrow for a closer look into Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Kenneth Bradt.