Tiger of the Week: Gary Gibbons '78

Last week, cardiologist and researcher Gary Gibbons ’78 was selected to lead one of the nation’s most important medical research centers, the Bethesda, Md.-based National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Gibbons, currently a professor, department chairman, and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, is expected to start his new position in the summer.

 

Gibbons, a leader in work related to cardiovascular health of minority populations, has earned 15 NHLBI-supported grants in the last 15 years and has served on the institute’s advisory council since 2009. In an interview with Science Insider, Gibbons said he aims to ensure “that NHLBI continues its legacy of doing discovery science that advances public health.”

 

With an annual budget of more than $3 billion, NHLBI is the third largest institute at the National Institutes of Health (behind the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases). In 2007, cardiovascular, lung, and blood diseases accounted for 43 percent of deaths in the United States.

 

Gibbons majored in psychology at Princeton, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School, and taught on the medical faculties at Stanford and Harvard before joining Morehouse in 1999. He was nominated for our weekly honor by classmate – and cardiologist – Kenneth Bernhard ’78.