Koh's father was an expert on East Asian and international law. He landed a teaching position at Yale Law School and resettled his family in New Haven, Conn., in 1961.

Koh grew up with five siblings and shared a bedroom with his brother, Harold, who is now the State Department's top legal adviser.

The Koh children attended the academically rigorous Hopkins School in New Haven; even so, their parents assigned them extra homework, including book reports and a daily diary.

"It was how we raised our children," said Koh's mother Hesung Chun Koh, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology, "with a drive not just to excel, but also to serve.

The greatness of a person is measured not by how much we help ourselves, but of how much we help others."

All six of the Koh children would go on to be university professors. Howard Koh started his journey close to home: at Yale College.

He lived in Timothy Dwight College and earned a B.A. in 1973. He stayed in New Haven to attend Yale University School of Medicine, where he earned his M.D. in 1977.

Koh moved to Boston that year to begin his residency at Boston City Hospital. By 1981, he was chief resident in internal medicine. That year, he married Dr. Claudia Arrigg, a Boston ophthalmologist. The couple has three children.

Koh, not content with a single specialty, went on to both Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospital. He holds board certifications in internal medicine, hematology, medical oncology and dermatology.

In 1986, Koh was appointed an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health. In 1994, he was made a full professor. Koh's research focused on varied topics in public health including, tobacco control, cancer prevention, disaster preparedness and inequality of health care given to different ethnic groups.

In 1995, Koh topped off his degrees with a master's in public health from Boston University.

From 1997 to 2003, Koh was Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health, overseeing four public health hospitals and a staff of 3,000. He served under both Republican and Democratic administrations and worked closely with HHS agencies including the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC).

During Koh's tenure as health commissioner, he became a well-known advocate of disease-prevention. (Koh was Massachusetts' public health commissioner before the state's innovative health-insurance plan was put into place.)

In 2000, then-President Bill Clinton appointed Koh to the national Cancer Advisory Board, on which he served until 2002.

In 2003, The Boston Red Sox named Koh a "Medical All-Star," specifically for his work helping with early detection and prevention of skin cancer. The team invited him to throw out the ceremonial first-pitch at Fenway Park, a thrill for the epidemiologist, who had been a Red Sox fan since childhood (New Haven is about halfway between Boston and New York and marks the traditional divide between Red Sox and Yankees territory.)

In 2004, when Koh's term, as public health commissioner was over, he returned to academia. This time, he went to Harvard's School of Public Health, as a professor and the associate dean for public health practice, as well as the director of the Division of Public Health Practice. He also directed the school's Center for Public Health Preparedness.

Koh has been an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response.

In March 2009, Obama nominated Koh to be assistant secretary for health at HHS. He was confirmed in June 2009, and his brother was conformed later that month, just in time for their mother's 80th birthday.

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