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DURHAM, N.C. -- Dr. Edward W. Holmes has been named Duke University Medical Center's vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, Dr. Ralph Snyderman, chancellor for health affairs announced Wednesday.

Holmes, a former Duke faculty member, will officially begin his appointment at Duke on Jan. 1, 1999, reporting to Snyderman.

The executive committee of the Duke University Board of Trustees approved the appointment in August.

"We are fortunate to have Dr. Holmes returning to Duke as its next vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of the School of Medicine," Snyderman said. "He is uniquely qualified for these important responsibilities, and he comes at a time of great opportunity for Duke University Medical Center. Our institution is poised to move into the forefront of academic medicine, and I look forward to working closely with Ed to fulfill this goal."

Holmes was selected after a nearly eight-month national search to fill the vice chancellor's position vacated by the coming retirement of Gordon Hammes. Holmes will take on the additional role of dean of Duke's medical school, a post previously held by Snyderman, whose responsibilities have grown with the development of Duke University Health System. As dean, Holmes will be responsible for all research and education in the School of Medicine. As chancellor for health affairs, Snyderman will function as executive dean.

Holmes spent 21 years at Duke, leaving as the Wyngaarden professor of medicine and chief of the division of metabolism, endocrinology and genetics to develop the department of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was most recently at Stanford as senior associate dean for research, vice president for translational medicine and clinical research, and special counsel to the president.

"Duke is an outstanding university, and the medical school is one of the top biomedical institutions in the country," Holmes said. "I am pleased and honored to have been selected for these important positions. I have known Ralph Snyderman throughout my career. I admire what he has done, not only as a physician-scientist but as a leader in American medicine."

Holmes, a native of Winona, Miss., earned a bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Following a residency and fellowship at Duke, he joined Duke's faculty in the departments of medicine and biochemistry in 1974. He was an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for 13 years.

He returned to Pennsylvania as chief of medicine and chairman of the department of medicine for six years before being recruited by Stanford.