Polonsky announced earlier this year that he would step down at the end of September. He first came to the university for an endocrinology fellowship in 1978. Polonsky will remain on faculty and serve as a senior adviser to University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos.

Anderson is director of the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins, the William Osler Professor of Medicine and physician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Before coming to Johns Hopkins in 2014, he led the Cardiovascular Research Center and the department of medicine at the University of Iowa.

“Mark is an extraordinarily talented and globally respected medical leader who is committed to an ambitious agenda of basic, translational and clinical research, while preparing the next generation of scholars, clinicians and leaders in biological sciences and academic medicine,” Alivisatos said in the statement. “Mark is in a strong position to lead growth of our clinical enterprise and will have a significant focus on the expansion of UCM’s regional health system.”

Among UChicago Medicine’s growth projects underway is a planned 500,000-square-foot, $633 million free-standing cancer hospital to open by 2026 on its Hyde Park campus.

Leadership in community health, health equity and access to care on the South Side will be a vital part of Anderson’s duties, the statement said.

“I am thrilled and humbled to join the University of Chicago community, and look forward to the opportunity to work across the University and the South Side to promote biomedical discovery, education and health,” Anderson said in the statement.

This story first appeared in our sister publication, Crain’s Chicago Business.