Dr. Harold Varmus, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, joined the Meyer Cancer Center of Weill Cornell Medicine as the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine in 2015. Prior to joining Meyer Cancer Center, Dr. Varmus was the director of the National Cancer Institute for five years. He was also the president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for 10 years and director of the National Institutes of Health for six years. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University in English literature and Columbia University in Medicine, he trained at Columbia University Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), before becoming a member of the UCSF basic science faculty for over two decades. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and is involved in several initiatives to promote science and health in developing countries. Dr. Varmus is the author of over 350 scientific papers and five books, including a recent memoir titled The Art and Politics of Science, and was a co-chair of former President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.