Harold Varmus

Harold Varmus MD, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1989 for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, has been the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at the Meyer Cancer Center of Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, since April 2015.  Previously, Dr Varmus was the Director of the National Cancer Institute for five years, the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for ten years, and the Director of the National Institutes of Health for six years.

A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University in English Literature and Columbia University in Medicine, Dr Varmus trained at Columbia University Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), before becoming a member of the UCSF basic science faculty for over two decades.

He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and is involved in several initiatives to promote science and health in developing countries.

The author of over 350 scientific papers and five books, including a memoir titled The Art and Politics of Science, Dr Varmus was a co-chair of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Public Library of Science, and chair of the Scientific Board of the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health.