Elias Zerhouni

Dr. Elias Zerhouni, M.D., is Professor Emeritus Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University and currently Vice Chairman and President of OPKO Health. He was the President, Global Research & Development, and a member of the Executive Committee for Sanofi, January 2011-July 2018. Dr. Zerhouni’s academic career was spent at the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital where he was professor of Radiology and Biomedical engineering and senior adviser for Johns Hopkins Medicine. He 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, 1996-2002, before his appointment as Director of the National Institutes of Health, 2002-2008. In that position he oversaw the NIH’s 27 Institutes and Centers with more than 18,000 employees and a budget of $29.5 billion (2008).

In November 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Zerhouni as one of the first presidential U.S. science envoys. He has assumed positions on several Boards, the board of the Lasker Foundation, Research!America and the NIH Foundation. He is also 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. He was elected in 2010 member of the French Academy of Medicine and appointed as Chair of Innovation at the College de France, 2011. He is the author of a memoir, “Disease Knows No Politics”, published July 2025.

For more information: http://diseaseknowsnopolitics/