Dr. Harold Varmus

Dr. Harold Varmus, former director of NIH and co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, will present the 2008 David E. Barmes Global Health Lecture, titled “The U.S. Commitment to Global Health.” The lecture will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 16 in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10 at 11:30 a.m. and will be followed by a reception sponsored by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

Varmus serves as co-chair of the Institute of Medicine’s committee on the U.S. commitment to global health, a study funded by 17 components of NIH as well as the CDC, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and a number of private foundations. The committee will issue its interim report to inform the incoming administration on the day preceding the lecture.

In addition, Varmus is president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, chairs the scientific board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health program and leads the advisory committee for the global health division. He was a member of the World Health Organization commission on macroeconomics and health and is a co-founder of the Public Library of Science, a leading publisher of open access journals.

The Fogarty International Center and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research jointly host the annual Barmes Lecture, which honors the late Dr. David E. Barmes, who was a special expert for international health at NIDCR and served in senior management positions related to oral health, health promotion and non-communicable diseases at WHO.