Dr. Robert (Bob) Misbin

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Dr. Robert (Bob) Misbin received an MD from John Hopkins in 1971. After completing a residency at Boston University, he joined the faculty of the University of Florida. In 1995, he joined the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with responsibility for insulin, glucagon and other drugs used to treat diabetes. He retired from the FDA in 2010 after having faced much conflict and controversy. In March 2000, he complained to members of Congress that the FDA was not acting after the block buster diabetes drug, Rezulin, had been linked to dozens of cases of liver failure. His warning about the potential for Avandia to cause heart disease also went unheeded, leading to an exposé in TIME magazine in August 2012. 

Dr. Misbin has written extensively about diabetes and medical ethics. To commemorate the centennial of the discovery of insulin, Dr. Misbin published INSULIN – History from an FDA Insider.

Bob Misbin has loved opera and classical music all his life. He attended the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera house at Lincoln Center as a standee in 1996, and boasts of being one of the few people still living to have seen the final Metropolitan Opera performance of Maria Callas a year earlier. 

In 2013, Dr. Misbin brought together Levine Music and Washington Performing Arts to start a chamber music competition for performers in the Washington area. He partnered with Leilane Mehler and Elaine Walter to form Partners for the Arts, an organization that promotes the careers of young opera singers. Dr. Misbin was an early supporter of the Chicago Metamorphosis Orchestra Project and started a similar program with Peabody Music to bring music instruction to inner city children.