Dr. Rotter’s research is in the genetics of common, complex diseases, i.e. the earliest determinants of what are for the most part adult diseases but with the origins of their pathophysiology in childhood. He has contributed to our knowledge of the genetic basis of cardiometabolic disorders (atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, arrhythmias and EKG variation, blood pressure and hypertension, lipid disorders, nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases, diabetes, diabetic kidney disease, diabetic eye disease, and insulin resistance), autoimmune/inflammatory disorders (type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, systemic lupus, coeliac disease), eye diseases (diabetic retinopathy, keratoconus, glaucoma, macular degeneration, myopia), and pharmacogenetics (genetic determinants of response to a therapy). His work (which is intensively collaborative) has utilized a variety of paradigms, from family based, to case-control, to cohort, to pharmacogenetic studies, and from candidate gene, to family based linkage, to genome-wide association, to large scale specialized genotyping and sequencing. Dr. Rotter and colleagues have been especially active in multiethnic studies including those in Caucasian, Hispanic, African-Americans, Chinese, Armenian, and Jewish populations. In the process, they helped delineate the genetic architecture of diabetes and insulin resistance, and of blood pressure and hypertension, and of lipid disorders, in multiple ethnic groups. Dr. Rotter has published some 630 peer reviewed articles and over 150 other publications (reviews, chapters, editorials, letters), and 5 books, the most notable being the two editions of King, Rotter, and Moltulsky’s Genetic Basis of Common Diseases. The ultimate goal of this work is to identify the optimal therapy and prevention for cardiometabolic and ocular disorders as a function of an individual’s genetic predisposition. Thus this is the basis for precision/personalized medicine, especially in minority populations. Dr. Rotter serves on the External Advisory Boards of the Precision Medicine programs of two health systems, in Nevada (Nevada Institute for Personalized Medicine), and South Dakota (Sanford Imagenetics). He serves on the Steering Committees of TOPMed (PI of MESA WGS TOPMed and the TOPMed Multi-Omics projects; also a convener of the diabetes and lipid working groups, respectively), CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology; chair, Genotyping Committee), and MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis; chair, Genetics Committee; PI of MESA Family and MESA SHARE GWAS studies).