Careers

Greg L. Kaluza MD, PhD, is the Director of Research at the CRF Skirball Center for Innovation . He has extensive expertise in guiding early ideas and inventions through comprehensive research programs to introduce practical therapies into clinical cardiovascular medicine.

Prior to CRF, Dr. Kaluza served as Scientific Director of the Center for Research in Cardiovascular Interventions and as Co-Director of the Angiographic Core Laboratory at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, Texas. He received his medical degree from the Nicolas Copernicus Academy of Medicine in Kraków, Poland. He completed his postgraduate fellowship at the Laboratory of Physiology, University of Antwerp, Belgium, and his residency in internal medicine at the Jagiellonian University College of Medicine, Kraków, Poland.   

Geng-Hua Yi, MD, is Assistant Director, Cardiovascular Surgical Therapies at the CRF Skirball Center for Innovation. Dr. Yi received his medical degree and a master’s degree in thoracic surgery from Nantong Medical College in Jiangsu, China. He also did his residency at the affiliated hospital of Nantong Medical College and a fellowship in cardiovascular surgery at the Chinese Academy of Medical Science.

Yanping Cheng, MD is the Assistant Director of Cardiovascular Imaging at the CRF Skirball Center for Innovation. She has been trained in clinical cardiology and echocardiography, as well as in cardiovascular physiology. She has performed preclinical surgeries and other studies for more than 10 years. She joined SCI in 2006 and is SCI’s premier echocardiography and endovascular imaging specialist.

Athanasios Peppas, BA, MS Director of Operations CRF Skirball Center for Innovation. He earned a BS in Biology from Rutgers University and a MS in Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He was trained in the laboratory of Dr. Stephen F. Vatner and has over 14 years of experience in preclinical cardiovascular research.

Torsten P. Vahl, MD is an Interventional Research Associate at the CRF Skirball Center for Innovation. Specializing in structural heart interventions, he is an interventional cardiologist at the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Vahl is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology. Before joining SCI in 2014, he spent eight years in research, working with various preclinical models during his training at the University of Cincinnati and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Gerard Conditt, RCIS Manager, CathLab and Imaging Services at the CRF Skirball Center for Innovation. He is credentialed as a Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist and has over 17 years of direct patient care and interventional cardiology experience as a senior cath lab assistant in a cardiac cathertization lab. He has worked full time in the preclinical research setting since joining SCI in March 2006 and is a graduate of the United States Cardiopulmonary Technology Program, Naval School of Health Sciences.

In 2016, Dr. Parikh was recruited to the Columbia University Medical Center as the Director of Endovascular Services, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His clinical practice leverages his knowledge and experience in clinical cardiovascular medicine and complex coronary and peripheral vascular interventions. He has an active practice in cardiovascular medicine with a focus on atherosclerotic vascular disease and intervention throughout the circulation. This includes coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease including claudication and critical limb ischemia, renovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease and venous disease and thrombosis. He is a nationally recognized clinician educator and investigator in vascular medicine and intervention. He has won numerous teaching awards locally and co-directs several national educational programs for physicians in training and for continuing medical education in conjunction with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention (SCAI). His research interests focus on novel endovascular devices for the treatment of vascular disease. He has been the site and national principal investigator for several clinical trials and has authored more than 50 original manuscripts and reviews in basic and clinical cardiovascular medicine. He lectures frequently at national meetings including the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), ACC and SCAI amongst others. Dr. Parikh grew up in northern New Jersey and graduated from Livingston High School. He went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard College with an AB in Biomedical Sciences and Engineering and went on to earn his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha honors. He completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, cardiovascular medicine and interventional cardiology fellowships at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and vascular medicine and intervention fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, all teaching hospitals affiliated with the Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Interventional Cardiology, Vascular Medicine and Endovascular Intervention.

Rebecca T. Hahn, MD is the Director of Interventional Echocardiography NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and a professor of medicine at CUMC. Dr. Hahn is Board Certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, echocardiography and she specializes in cardiac ultrasound and echocardiography. Her clinical interests include valvular heart disease, adult congenital heart disease, and heart disease in pregnancy. Dr. Hahn attended Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and did her residency in internal medicine, fellowship in cardiology and research fellowship in cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.