HHS/NIH Director Participates in Scientific Meetings in Qatar and Egypt

May 2, 2006 - The Honorable Elias Zerhouni, M.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, participated in the Founding Meeting for Arab Expatriate Scientists in Doha, Qatar, held April 24-25, 2006, and in BioVision Alexandria 2006, held April 26-29, 2006, in Alexandria, Egypt.

The Qatar Foundation organized the Doha meeting under the auspices of Her Highness Sheikha Mozar Bint Nasser Al-Missned. The Session was designed to gather Arab scientists from many disciplines to foster worldwide collaborations among Arab scientists.

In Egypt, Dr. Zerhouni was a keynote speaker at the opening session of the BioVision 2006 conference. Organized by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the goal of the conference is to promote the active exchange of biotechnological information and new ideas needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It followed in the tradition that began with BioVision 1999 in Lyon, France, of bringing distinguished speakers to commemorate scientific advances and the finest achievements of the human intellect. Dr. Zerhouni presented as well a talk on “Transforming Medicine in the 21st Century” and chaired a plenary session on the recently launched Disease Control and Priorities Project (DCPP). The DCPP is an alliance of the HHS/NIH Fogarty International Center, the World Bank, The World Health Organization, the Population Reference Bureau and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Last revised: August 17, 2007