BATON ROUGE - LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center is losing Executive Director William Cefalu.

The American Diabetes Association announced Monday that it was hiring Cefalu as its chief scientific and medical officer. 

Cefalu has served as the head of the Pennington Center since 2013, and has more than 30 years of work in diabetes research and care. LSU credits him with drawing in more than $50 million in scientific grants and contracts to Pennington for chronic disease research.

LSU President F. King Alexander said he is sad to see Cefalu leave, but believes his new position will elevate one of Louisiana's greatest challenges to a national focus.

"Only a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like this could tear me away from my home state, LSU and my gifted colleagues," Cefalu said.

Cefalu will take up his new position on Feb. 20.