Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Jay Bhattacharya Begins Tenure as 18th Director of the National Institutes of Health

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Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., was sworn in today as the 18^th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). President Trump nominated Dr. Bhattacharya for the position on Nov. 26, 2024, and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 25, 2025.

As Director, Dr. Bhattacharya will oversee the nation’s medical research agency. Under his leadership, Director Bhattacharya will play an instrumental role in shaping the agency’s activities and outlook and ensuring they are in alignment with the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission.

"Under Dr. Bhattacharya’s leadership, NIH will restore its commitment to gold-standard science,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “I’m excited to work with Dr. Bhattacharya to ensure NIH research aligns with our Administration’s priorities — especially tackling the chronic disease epidemic and helping to Make America Healthy Again.”

“Chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity continue to cause poor health outcomes in every community across the U.S. Novel biomedical discoveries that enhance health and lengthen life are more vital than ever to our country’s future,” said Dr. Bhattacharya. “As NIH Director, I will build on the agency’s long and illustrious history of supporting breakthroughs in biology and medicine by fostering gold-standard research and innovation to address the chronic disease crisis.”

A renowned physician and health economist, Dr. Bhattacharya has previously held numerous appointments at Stanford University in California. As a professor of medicine and economics, Dr. Bhattacharya studied population aging and chronic disease as well as the effects of government policies and programs on health. Recently, he has studied the epidemiology of COVID-19 and the negative impacts of the Biden-era public health response and pandemic policies.

Encouraging different perspectives, especially from early-career researchers, will be central to Dr. Bhattacharya’s approach to leading NIH and part of his larger mission to restore public trust in science. Alongside Secretary Kennedy, he will champion innovative, cutting-edge research that fuels near-term solutions for patients while balancing investments in basic science.

Dr. Bhattacharya held fellowships at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute and Stanford’s Hoover Institute and was a professor in Stanford’s Department of Health and Research Policy. Previously, he conducted research at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the SPHERE Institute, a policy research firm. Before joining Stanford, he worked as an economist at the RAND Corporation where he co-invented a patented system that calculates optimal flexible savings account contributions based on health needs and comparative cost information for health insurance plans.

Director Bhattacharya earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Stanford University. He then completed medical school and earned a Ph.D. in economics, both at Stanford. He replaces Matthew J. Memoli, M.D., who has served as the acting director of NIH since Jan. 22, 2025.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health^®