Olujimi A. Ajijola, M.D., Ph.D., serves as the Associate Director of the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center & EP Programs. He directs the Neurocardiology Research Program and co-directs the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine-Cardiology and Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology.

His laboratory studies the peripheral neural circuits that regulate the heart, utilizing cutting edge electrophysiologic, genetic, optical, and computational tools to examine how myocardial infarction structurally and functionally perturbs the sympathetic nervous system, and how this dysregulation drives arrhythmogenesis and sudden cardiac death risk.  Clinically, he is an interventional cardiac electrophysiologist with expertise in a broad range of heart rhythm disorders.

Dr. Ajijola received his B.A. with Distinction from the University of Virginia, his medical degree from Duke University, and his Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology from UCLA as part of the STAR program. His clinical training in internal medicine and Cardiology/Cardiac Electrophysiology were performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital and at UCLA, respectively. He is also an alumnus of the National Academies’ New Voices Program, a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2), the Jeremiah Stamler Young Investigator Award, and the 2023 Sir Burdon Sanderson Prize Lecture Award from the University of Oxford. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2023. He is currently a sitting member of the National Academies’ Roundtable on Black Men and Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. He is a nationally recognized advocate for medical and physician-scientist training, recently receiving the Chan Zuckerberg Science Diversity Leadership Award for these efforts.