HAROLD VARMUS, M.D.
Lewis Thomas University Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine

HAROLD VARMUS is the Lewis Thomas university professor at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for breakthrough studies unveiling the genetic basis of cancer. He is also an internationally recognized authority on retroviruses, the viruses that cause AIDS and many cancers in animals. Varmus is a senior associate faculty member of the New York Genome Center and previously served as director of the National Cancer Institute for five years, the president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for 10 years, and director of the National Institutes of Health for six years. He is also involved in several initiatives to promote science and health in developing countries.

Varmus is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine,
and serves on advisory groups for several academic, governmental, philanthropic, and commercial institutions. An author of nearly 400 scientific papers and five books, including a 2009 memoir entitled The Art and Politics of Science, Varmus was a co-chair of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.