AIDS Expert to Head Duke Health Institute

In this undated photo released by Duke University, medical center researcher Michael Merson is shown. Merson, an internationally recognized expert in the study of HIV/AIDS, will be named director of the newly created Global Health Institute at Duke University, Wednesday, July 26, 2006, in Durham, N.C. Merson, former director of the World Health Organization's AIDS program and a professor at Yale University, will take over as institute director Nov. 1. The university-wide program promises to go beyond medicine by bringing together students in engineering, business and other academic areas to address health issues worldwide. (AP Photo/Duke University Medical Center) (AP)

He joined Yale in 1995 as dean of Public Health at the School of Medicine. Merson now heads the university's Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, which operates research and projects in about 20 countries.

Merson earned his medical degree at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn before completing his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

He spent three years working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he was promoted to chief medical epidemiologist at the Cholera Research Laboratory in Bangladesh.

Merson has written more than 175 articles and is senior editor of International Public Health.

"We did an international search, and he was head and shoulders above all the other candidates if you look at what he's done," Dzau said.

___

On the Net:

Duke University: http://www.duke.edu