Victoria S. Lim, MD, 1938-2025
We are sad to share news of the passing of Victoria S. Lim, MD, professor emeritus of Internal Medicine, earlier this month at the age of 86. Lim joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1982 from an Associate Professor position at the University of Chicago, where she had been since 1969. Lim earned her medical degree from Far Eastern University in Manila, Phillippines, followed by a medicine internship in at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, residency at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and a nephrology fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Her research while at Iowa focused on hormonal derangements in uremia, anemia and iron metabolism in patients with chronic renal failure, amino acid turnover kinetics in patients before and during maintenance dialysis, and neuroendocrine regulation of feeding in patients with uremia. Before retirement, Lim had published more than 50 articles in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals such as Annals of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and many others.
We reached out to colleagues for response and remembrances and grateful to share them here. More are welcome in the comments.
Vicky was an excellent clinician and a patient and effective teacher. Indeed, her primary characteristic was her gentleness and consideration for colleagues, patients, students, and everyone. She was a “glue” that helped to maintain the renal division as a family as much as a partnership. She was famous for her division gatherings at her house, where wonderful Chinese as well as American specialties were served in an atmosphere of fun and collegiality. Her influence was felt similarly outside the Renal Division in the general culture of Iowa City, where she played an important part in the International Writers’ Workshop, introducing us to major writers of Asia. She will be remembered with affection by all of us.
– Larry Hunsicker, MD
Amazing mentor and an incredible human being. A huge loss to all of us who had the pleasure of knowing her and working with her.
– Manish Suneja, MD
I have known Vicky ever since I came to Iowa in 1992. Always pleasant, always soft spoken, always kind but she was a very astute physician and a diligent and accomplished clinical and translational scientist. Her areas of expertise was in hormonal changes with chronic kidney disease, alterations in amino acid kinetics and protein-energy homeostasis with advanced kidney disease and she became one of the world’s foremost experts in that area. But she was always humble about her achievements. She was one of our early and best-known women physician-scientists who was recognized more outside than inside the institution.
Even after she retired she stayed active for a few years with her writing but took great delight in her role as a grandmother. Her annual newsletters kept us abreast of the various achievements of her children and her grandchildren. She and Ramon created the Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship that brings eminent scientists to campus every year. She was one of the best. She will be missed.
– Christie Thomas, MD
The Department extends our condolences to her family, including her husband, Ramon Lim, MD, a long-time faculty member in the Department of Neurology.
Memorial gifts can be made to the Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship Fund at the University of Iowa Foundation.
I met Vicky in 2015 when I helped organize the Ramon and Victoria Lim Medical Science Lectureship on behalf of the CCOM. I remember fondly working with Ramon and Vicky in organizing the lectureship, and the dinners we shared to commemorate the event. Vicky was such a force and yet with a gentle heart. I imagine this translated into a very full life as a physician/scientist, writer, mentor, wife, mother and grandmother. She will indeed be missed.