Elias Zerhouni, MD
Professor Emeritus, Johns Hopkins University
Former Director of the National Institutes of Health
Elias Zerhouni, MD, is Professor Emeritus of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and a former director of the National Institutes of Health where he oversaw the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers with more than 18,000 employees and a budget at the time of $29.5 billion.
Dr. Zerhouni spent his academic career at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital where he was professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering and senior adviser for Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. Zerhouni served as Chair of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vice Dean for Research and Executive Vice Dean of the School of Medicine from 1996 to 2002, before his appointment as Director of the National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008.
In November 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Zerhouni as one of the first presidential U.S. science envoys. Dr. Zerhouni also served as Senior Fellow to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2009 to 2010 and Senior Advisor to the CEO of Sanofi.
From January 2011 to July 2018, he was President of Global Research & Development and an Executive Committee member of Sanofi, the multinational pharmaceutical research company.
Dr. Zerhouni has founded or co-founded five start-up companies, authored more than 200 publications and holds several patents. He has assumed positions on several boards, including most recently, the boards of the Lasker Foundation, Research!America and the NIH Foundation.
He also is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He received the prestigious Legion of Honor medal from the French National Order in 2008 and was elected in 2010 as a member of the French Academy of Medicine. He was appointed Chair of Innovation at the College de France in 2011.