Elias Zerhouni

Elias Zerhouni is an Algerian-born American physician-scientist, radiologist, and biomedical research leader who served as the 15th director of the National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008. He is professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins and author of "Disease Knows No Politics," with a career spanning medical imaging, NIH leadership, pharmaceutical R&D, and health policy.

Politicized Science Policy Threatens America’s Biomedical Research Ecosystem

Former NIH director Elias Zerhouni argues in Disease Knows No Politics that American biomedical strength depends on a political compact now under strain: science can survive political fights only if evidence, peer review, civil-service independence, immigrant talent, and patient trust remain protected. Drawing on his path from Algeria to Johns Hopkins and the NIH, he warns that separate decisions on funding, universities, immigration, drug pricing, and grant rules can combine to weaken the research system that made the United States a biomedical leader.

The Aspen InstituteJun 24, 202619 min read