Description

Jayanta Bhattacharya is an American health economist who has served as the 18th director of the National Institutes of Health since 2025. Bhattacharya was a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University until March 2025 when he left his position at Stanford and became an emeritus professor so that he could start his position at the NIH. He was an investigator at Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. His research focused on the economics of health care. In November 2024, President-elect Donald Trump named Bhattacharya as his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, and he was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 25, 2025.