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H.E. Professor Elias Zerhouni

H.E. Professor Elias Zerhouni

Elias Zerhouni is president of The Zerhouni Group and the former director of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has spent much of his career providing clinical, scientific and management leadership to a wide range of agencies all over the world. As the 15th director of the NIH, Dr. Zerhouni oversaw 27 institutes and centers, and more than 18,000 employees (with a budget of $29.5 billion in fiscal year 2008) from May 2002 to October 2008. During that time, he successfully led a series of initiatives and reforms, including the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, which led to the passage of the NIH Reform Act of 2006 by the U.S. Congress.

Prior to joining the NIH, Dr. Zerhouni served as executive vice dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as chair of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, as the Martin Donner professor of radiology, and as professor of biomedical engineering. Prior to that, he served as vice dean for research at Johns Hopkins.

A radiologist by training, Dr. Zerhouni conducted imaging research early in his career that led to major advances in computerized axial tomography (CAT scanning) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He is credited with developing novel quantitative imaging methods used for diagnosing cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. As one of the world’s premier experts in computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Dr. Zerhouni extended the role of CT and MRI from taking snapshots of gross anatomy to visualizing how the body works at the physiologic and molecular levels. He pioneered magnetic tagging, a non-invasive method using MRI to track the motions and accurately measure the function of a heart in three dimensions. He is also known for refining an imaging technique called quantitative computed tomographic densitometry that helps discriminate between non-cancerous and cancerous nodules in the lung. It is also used for developing and applying the method of high resolution CT for the study of heart and lung structure and function, and for diagnosing cancer. Dr. Zerhouni is the author of more than 210 publications and holds eight patents.

Partly based on his research and inventions, Dr Zerhouni founded or co-founded five start-up companies. In 1982, he founded Computerized Imaging Reference Systems (CIRS) and served as founder and chairman for several years. Seven years later, in 1989, he founded the Advanced Medical Imaging Institute (AMII), which was later sold to a major public company. He is a co-inventor and co-founder of Biopsys Corporation, which became public before being acquired by a major public company in 1996; and American Radiology Services, where he served as chairman and CEO until 2002. He is also a co-inventor and co-founder of Surgivision, Inc., which is a leader in MRI-guided intervention systems to improve patient care.

Dr. Zerhouni is a member of the boards of several organizations including the Lasker Foundation; Research America; the Mayo Clinic; the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; and Actelion Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss biotechnology company. He also was appointed to the chairmanship of the Maryland Economic Development Commission by the governor of Maryland. Dr Zerhouni has recently been appointed as chief scientific advisor of Science-Translational Medicine, a sister journal of Science Magazine, which is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He also advises the CEO of Sanofi-Aventis, a global pharmaceutical and vaccines company, regarding science and technology issues.

In January, 2010, President Obama appointed Dr. Zerhouni as one of the first U.S. science envoys. In this role, he visited Muslim-majority countries from North Africa to Southeast Asia on behalf of the U.S. government. Among his many honors, Dr. Zerhouni earned membership into the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2000. He is also a chevalier of the Legion of Honor and was awarded the medal of the Legion of Honor in person by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in April of 2008.

Dr. Zerhouni joined Sanofi-aventis as its President of Global Research and Development in January of 2011.