Harold Varmus

Harold Varmus, M.D., co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, joined the Meyer Cancer Center of Weill Cornell Medicine as the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine in 2015.  He is also a Senior Associate Member of the New York Genome Center, where he helps to develop programs in cancer genomics, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he teaches an undergraduate course about the scientific enterprise. Previously, Dr. Varmus was the Director of the National Cancer Institute for five years (2010-2015), the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for 10 years (2000-2010), and Director of the National Institutes of Health for six years (1993-1999). A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University in English literature and of Columbia University in medicine, he was further 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. 

Varmus is a member of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences and Medicine, is involved in several initiatives to promote science and health in developing countries, and has served on many advisory groups for academic, governmental, philanthropic, and commercial institutions. Past positions include co-chair of the New York City Mayor’s life sciences initiative (LifeSciNYC) and member of advisory boards of Crick and Broad Institutes, the global health program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and several biotechnology companies. He is also a member of the Lasker Prize Jury and chairs the jury for the newly launched Merkin Prize. He is also the chair of the World Health Organization’s Science Council and a co-chair of the National Academies’ Committee on Science, Technology, and Law. 

The author of over 400 scientific papers and five books, including a 2009 memoir entitled The Art and Politics of Science (WW Norton), Varmus was a co-chair of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (2009-10); a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Public Library of Science (the publisher of PLOS journals; 2003-2010), and chair of the Scientific Board of the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health (2001-2003). He has also written occasional reviews, op-eds, and articles for The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other newspapers and magazines.