Foreign Faculty

Dr. Robert s. Zimmerman

Dr. Robert s. Zimmerman received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland and completed his fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Dr. Zimmerman is the Vice Chairman Endocrinology Cleveland Clinic and Director of the Diabetes Center in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism. He is on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology and is co-chairman of the Endocrinology Board Review Course Committee for the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. He is currently on the CME committee of the Endocrine Society. He previously served as a member of the Meeting Steering Committee of the Endocrine Society for six years, Governmental Affairs Committee for three years, and the Clinical Affairs Committee for six years.

He is on the Board of the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland. Dr. Zimmerman’s research interests include cardiac effects of diabetes therapy, stress and hypertension, thyroid disease and metabolic abnormalities. He has authored and co-authored more than 100 journal articles, book chapters and abstracts. Dr. Zimmerman is a fellow of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology and a member of the American Diabetes Association and Endocrine Society.
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Dr Mario Skugor

Dr Mario Skugor graduated in Medicine from School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia. During his medical school he served as student teacher in Anatomy, Histology, Pharmacology and Pathology. This opportunity is extended only to best students in the class. Then he pursued his post graduation in Bio-Medicine and then in Nuclear Medicine at University of Zagreb.

In May, 1993 he was invited to Ohio State University to work as research associate in the Bone and Mineral Metabolism Laboratory where he spent next 4 years. In 1997 he started Internal Medicine residency program in St. Luke’s Medical Center in Cleveland.

In year 2000 he started Endocrinology fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. He graduated in 2002 and have been on staff in Cleveland Clinic since then. His focus areas are thyroid diseases, diabetes, obesity and disorders of calcium metabolism.

He is an active member of American Thyroid Association, The Endocrine Society and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. He served on Board of Directors of Ohio River Valley Chapter of American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and was a president during the 2009 and 2010.

He has been involved with Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of CWRU since its inception. He has been a member of endocrine course curriculum development committee, and is currently involved in teaching seminars on thyroid and parathyroid physiology and pathophysiology as well as nutrition and diabetes to medical students.

Between January 2009 and January 2011 he held the position of associate director of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism fellowship program and was appointed Associate Professor of Medicine at CCLCM of CWRU.

In January 2011 he was appointed vice chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Global patient Services. In this role he coordinates medical care for international patients and help develop international educational and business activities of Cleveland Clinic.

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Dr. Melissa Li-Ng

Dr. Melissa Li-Ng completed her MD at SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine, Stony Brook, NY in 2003 and did her fellowship in Endocrinology at Division of Endocrinology, Georgetown/Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC in Jul 2007-Jun 2009. Then she moved to Cleveland Clinic and served as Staff Physician at Endocrinology & Metabolism Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio. She also served as a lecturer at Cleveland Clinic Learner College of Medicine and as Associate Program Director, Endocrinology Fellowship and Philip Hall Subspecialty Curriculum Advisor to the Internal Medicine Residency Program

Currently she works as a Consultant Endocrinologist at Medical Subspecialties Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE. She is also Chief of Informatics and her work involves optimization of the clinical software and applications in the only all-digital hospital in the Middle East; to implementation of new applications that support patient care and hospital operations; oversee electronic medical record (EMR) training of hospital staff; conduct data analytics to improve services and daily operations; strategize continuous improvement projects to promote efficiency, sustainability and safety.

She is recipient of C. Bertram Hoffberger Research Achievement Award for Outstanding Clinical Research, 2009. She has been faculty, Cleveland Clinic/AACE Endocrinology Board Review and is currently a member of FDA Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes Advisory Committee. Dr Melissa is an accomplished teacher and has a number of publications to her credit. Close
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Dr. Betul Hatipoglu

Dr. Betul Hatipoglu, MD, is a Staff member in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Cleveland Clinic's main campus, having accepted that appointment in 2008. Prior to that appointment, she was an assistant professor of medicine and medical director for pancreas and islet cell transplant program at the University of Illinois at Chicago for nearly eight years.

Her clinical interests include diabetes, thyroid disease in woman and pituitary and adrenal disorders and alternative medicine.

Dr. Hatipoglu received her medical degree from Istanbul Medical School. She completed an internal medicine residency and chief residency at Michael Reese-University of Illinois at Chicago and an endocrinology fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

For four consecutive year 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 she received the Excellence in teaching award from University of Illinois at Chicago department of medicine. Dr. Hatipoglu speaks three languages -- English, Turkish and French -- and is board-certified in internal medicine as well as endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. She is a member of the Endocrine Society, American Diabetes Association, American College of Medicine and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
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Dr. Philipp E. Scherer

Guest Faculty

Dr. Philipp Scherer is Professor and Director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Basel, Switzerland, followed by post-doctoral training the Whitehead Institute at MIT in Cambridge. In 1997, he joined the faculty of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he was a Professor for Cell Biology and Medicine. Throughout his career, he has maintained an interest in processes related to cellular and systemic energy homeostasis. He identified adiponectin, one of the first secretory factors to be described that almost exclusively originate in adipose tissue and which is currently widely studied by many different research groups.

Current efforts in his laboratory are focused on the identification and physiological characterization of novel proteins that serve as potential links between the adipocyte, liver, the pancreatic beta cell and the processes of whole body energy homeostasis, inflammation, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Scherer has been on the faculty of UT Southwestern Medical Center since 2007 as a member of the Department of Internal Medicine. He holds the Touchstone Distinguished Chair in Diabetes Research and is a member of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was awarded the 2015 Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement from the American Diabetes Association, the 2017 European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) / Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Prize for Excellence and the 2018 Manpei Suzuki Prize in Japan.
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