Stephen B. Liggett, MD, is the senior associate vice president for research at USF Health and the vice dean for research at the Morsani College of Medicine. He is also a professor of Internal Medicine, Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Medical Engineering. He received a B.S. in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MD from the University of Miami School of Medicine, with a subsequent nine years of post-doctoral training at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Duke University Medical Center. At Duke, he was a post-doctoral fellow Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

Dr. Liggett was formerly chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and associate dean for interdisciplinary research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. Liggett studies the molecular and genetic basis of signaling by G-protein coupled receptors, which represent the targets for about half of all prescribed drugs. He holds 15 patents and has over 25 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for studying genomics and receptors as they relate to heart and lung disease.