HMS Dean Jeffrey S. Flier, MD, has announced the appointment of William W. Chin, MD '72, as HMS Executive Dean for Research, a newly created senior position with overarching responsibility for biomedical research at HMS.

"As a senior member of my leadership team," says Flier, "Bill will spearhead efforts to design and implement a vision for research at HMS, with special emphasis on interdisciplinary research that crosses departmental and institutional boundaries." Chin will also hold an academic appointment as professor of medicine at HMS. He will assume his new role on May 1.

Chin is a Harvard-trained endocrinologist and longstanding faculty member with the highest academic credentials, who brings tremendous leadership experience both in making medical discoveries and in translating them into therapies for improving human health. He comes to HMS from Eli Lilly and Company, where he has worked for the last decade, most recently as senior vice president for Discovery Research and Clinical Investigation. He also served on the company's Senior Management Council.

Chin's impressive career is exemplified in part by his extensive bibliography of nearly 300 papers, chapters and books, most of which were generated during his 25 years on the Harvard Medical School faculty. After graduating from HMS in 1972, he trained at several HMS teaching hospitals, including a medical internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital and endocrine clinical training and research at Massachusetts General Hospital. During his tenure as a faculty member in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, he became chief of the Genetics Division and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, advancing to professor of Medicine, and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at HMS.

As a pioneering molecular endocrinologist at HMS, Chin embraced the early use of emerging DNA technology to make important discoveries regarding the structure, function and regulation of hormone genes. His investigations often demonstrated a translational research theme, connecting basic laboratory discoveries to their physiologic relevance in animal models and humans, showing, for example, how certain mutations can cause thyroid hormone resistance in people. He has been honored with numerous awards for research, mentorship and leadership. The citation for the Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award from the Endocrine Society in 2000 noted his boundless energy and enthusiasm and ability to instill it in those who come in contact with him.

Chin has continued to contribute in fundamental ways to HMS while at Lilly. "Bill was extremely helpful to me as an activist president of the Harvard Medical Alumni Foundation at the time I became dean. At my request, he participated fully on the HMS Strategic Planning Steering Committee, to which he brought valuable perspectives reflecting the depth of his experience," says Flier.

In this new role at HMS, Chin assumes a key HMS leadership position at a remarkable moment in the history of biology and medicine. One of his highest priorities will be to conceptualize and develop new research initiatives, such as the therapeutics discovery initiative, envisioned as a focused and innovative effort to bring together the enormous expertise of our community in order to find effective new ways for transforming the world's most vital biomedical research into therapies that can directly improve human health. He will also develop a coherent strategy for the School's scientific interactions with industry, ensuring it is both aligned with the HMS Faculty Policy on Conflicts of Interest and Commitment and is capable of advancing critical unmet needs.

Chin will work closely with Dean Flier, other HMS deans, the HMS preclinical chairs and other research leaders across HMS's affiliated institutions and the broader University to develop a framework for strategic scientific planning. He will also engage the community in support of key research initiatives designed to sustain HMS as the leading biomedical research institution well into the future.

"There are very few people capable of rising to such a challenge, and it is for this reason that I am thrilled that Bill will be joining the HMS leadership team," says Flier.