Biography

Dr William Chin
Executive Dean for Research and Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School

Born in New York, Chin received his A.B. in chemistry summa cum laude from Columbia College and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He then completed a residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital and a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

Chin served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School for 25 years and was professor of medicine, and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School; investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and chief of the division of genetics and senior physician at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.  Chin then joined Eli Lilly and Company in 1999, and served most recently as senior vice president of discovery research and clinical investigation, with overall responsibilities for the therapeutic areas, chemistry, toxicology, ADME and early clinical development. He serves as a member of the company’s senior management council. He previously was vice president of discovery biology research and clinical investigation. In 2010, he returned to academia as the Executive Dean for Research and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Chin is a world-renowned molecular endocrinologist who has pioneered the understanding of the mechanisms of nuclear receptor action with a focus on thyroid, estrogen, and other hormones, as well as various aspects of hormonal regulation of pituitary hormone gene expression. As the leader of the genetics program at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, he was responsible for the establishment of genomics, bioinformatics, and clinical genetics in the practice of medicine. He is author or co-author of more than 270 original papers, invited chapters or books, and he has served on numerous editorial boards and private and governmental review panels.

He has received many accolades, including the Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award from the Endocrine Society, the Sidney H. Ingbar and Van Meter Awards from the American Thyroid Association, the Bowditch Award from the American Physiological Society, and the AFCR Young Investigator Award, and election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians. Chin has been a member of the board of scientific counselors of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and chair of the NIH endocrinology study section. He has also provided leadership on the council of several key professional societies, including service as president of the American Thyroid Association and the Interurban Clinical Club.

Chin is a member of the Board of Directors at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Prize [the largest monetary prize for wildlife conservation in the world] Jury.  He has also been an overseer of the New England Conservatory of Music and a co-chair of Project Success, a science program for underprivileged secondary students in Boston.

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Last Updated On 09 February 2011