Peter G. Traber, M.D., is going back to pure research.

President Judith Rodin announced July 26 that Traber, CEO of the Health System and interim dean of the School of Medicine since February, has accepted an offer from GlaxoSmithKline to head its clinical pharmacology and experimental medicine division.

Health System Chief Operating Officer Robert Martin, Ph.D., will take the title of interim CEO, and School of Medicine Deputy Dean Arthur K. Asbury, M.D., the Van Meter Emeritus Professor of Neurology, will serve as interim dean.

Traber will take a leave of absence from the School of Medicine faculty to work for GlaxoSmithKline, the new pharmaceutical company to be formed by the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham at the end of September.

Martin said, “I respect [Peter] immensely and I already miss him. Our challenges will be to continue to provide ways to deliver superior experiences to our patients, our faculty and our students, and to do it in a cost-effective way.”