Elias Zerhouni

In 1975, Elias Zerhouni, at age 24, came to the United States from Algeria with $369 in his pocket. He had taught himself just enough English to pass an equivalency exam. A recent graduate of the University of Algiers medical school, he had come to take up a residency in radiology, hardly considered a cutting-edge field of medicine at the time. As it happened, he arrived at the dawn of a revolution in medical imaging, one that saw the development of ultrasound, CAT scan and MRI. Zerhouni would become one of the field's leading innovators. In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Dr. Zerhouni to serve as the 15th Director of the National Institutes of Health, overseeing 27 separate institutes and centers, with a budget of over $28 billion. Within 18 months of taking office, Dr. Zerhouni introduced a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar strategic plan called the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, a major new effort to address medical research problems across the boundaries of disciplines and specialties. As an Arab American and a Muslim, Dr. Zerhouni had encountered his share of prejudice, ignorance and misunderstanding over the course of his life, but these experiences have only strengthened his commitment to American ideals of diversity and respect for individual achievement. On offering him the job at NIH, President Bush told Zerhouni that he represented a good example of what America is all about. "This says more about America than it says about me," Dr. Zerhouni replied. He served for six years, and stepped down in October 2008. In January of 2010, he became (with Ahmed Zewail and Bruce Alberts) the first U.S. science envoys to Islam, visiting Muslim-majority countries from North Africa to Southeast Asia. On December 14, 2010, Dr. Zerhouni was named the head of research and development for Sanofi-Aventis, a global pharmaceutical and vaccines company. Dr. Elias Zerhouni addressed the student delegates at the 2007 Achievement Summit when they visited the National Institutes of Health.