The IMES Founder’s Lecture was established in 2019, to honor the founding of the MIT Institute of Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) in 2012.
The first speaker was the Founding Director of IMES, Arup K. Chakraborty, who delivered a talk on Germs, T Cells, Dewdrops, and Genes. Chakraborty is also the John M. Deutch Institute Professor, MIT, Professor of Chemical engineering, Physics, and Chemisty, MIT; and a Founding Steering Committee Member of the Ragon Institute of MIT, MGH, and Harvard University.
Upcoming Lecture
Review of the Past, Present and Potential of Biomedical Research
Speaker: Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Professor Emeritus Johns Hopkins University; Former NIH Director (2002-2008); President and Vice Chair Opko Health
Date: April 29, 2026
Where: MIT Room 3-270
When: 3:30 pm
Abstract: TBD
Host: Lydia Bourouiba, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, core faculty at IMES.
Reception to follow.
Elias Zerhouni, M.D., is Professor Emeritus of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, where 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 from 1996 to 2002 before his appointment as Director of the National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 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). Dr. Zerhouni also served as senior fellow to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation from 2009 to 2010 and senior advisor to the CEO of Sanofi. He subsequently served as President, Global Research & Development, and a member of the Executive Committee for Sanofi from January 2011 to July 2018. Dr. Zerhouni co-authored more than 200 publications and has founded or co-founded five start-up companies. He currently is Vice Chairman and President of OPKO Health.
In November 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Zerhouni as one of the first presidential U.S. science envoys. He is 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 and was elected in 2010 as a member of the French Academy of Medicine and appointed as Chair of Innovation at the College de France in 2011. He is the author of a memoir, “Disease Knows No Politics”, published in July 2025. For more information: https://diseaseknowsnopolitics.com/