Friends of IARC

Dr Harold Varmus, M.D., joined the Meyer Cancer Center of Weill Cornell Medicine as the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine in 2015. Previously, Dr Varmus was the Director of the United States National Cancer Institute for five years. He was Director of the National Institutes of Health for six years and President of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for 10 years. Dr Varmus is a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of the genetic basis of cancer. 

A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University in English literature and Columbia University in medicine, Dr Varmus trained at Columbia University Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He was a member of the UCSF basic science faculty for more than two decades. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and is involved in several initiatives to promote science and health in developing countries. Dr Varmus was a co-chair of President Obama′s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Public Library of Science, and chair of the Scientific Board of the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health. Dr Varmus was awarded the IARC Medal of Honour in 2013.