Jeffrey Flier

Professor of Physiology and Medicine, Harvard University

A distinguished endocrinologist, researcher, and leader in the field of academic medicine, Dr. Flier served, from 2007 and 2016, as the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Harvard University. A leading authority on the molecular causes of diabetes and obesity, Dr. Flier is now the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and the George Higginson Professor of Physiology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Before being named Dean, he served as Chief Academic Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a major Harvard clinical and research affiliate. Recently Professor Flier has been researching and writing about issues of broad importance to the health professions, including the future of medicine and the health care workforce, challenges to the ecosystem of biomedical research, and threats to academic freedom and free speech in the academy.

Dr. Flier received a BS from City College New York and an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he graduated with the Elster Award for Highest Academic Standing. He has authored more 200 scholarly papers and reviews. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Flier’s honors also include the Eli Lilly Award of the American Diabetes Association, the Berson Lecture of the American Physiological Society, and honorary doctorates from the University of Athens and the University of Edinburgh. In 2003 he was the recipient of the Edwin B. Astwood Lecture Award from the Endocrine Society and, in 2005, he received the Banting Medal, the highest scientific honor awarded by the American Diabetes Association.

Dr. Flier has served on the boards of a number of not for profit and for profit organizations in the areas of education and biopharmaceuticals.