Public Biography
Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D. Gil Omenn is Professor of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics, Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Public Health at the University of Michigan and Director of the University-wide Center for Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics. He was the youngest person elected when inducted into the National Academy of Medicine (Institute of Medicine) in 1979. In 2008 he received the Walsh McDermott Award. He chaired study reports ranging from Leadership by Example, the 3rd report in the Health Care Quality series; to Measuring the Efficiency of R&D Programs, which achieved a rapprochement between OMB and EPA; to Evolution of Translational Omics: Lessons Learned and Path Forward, which put omics-based predictive tests on a productive path. He served on study committees on Science, Evolution, and Creationism and Revitalizing the NIH, as well as the IOM Council (1983-86; 2014-18), and stimulated OSTP funding in 1979 of an IOM report on Clinical Investigation in Developing Countries. He represented NAM (IOM) and chaired the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) during 1983-1988 and was inaugural chair of the NRC Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST). He has participated in interest group workshops and spoken on annual meeting programs. He served the maximal 9 years on the Report Review Committee of the Academies, and chaired an NAS Triennial Review of the NAM (IOM). He was the first individual Member to endow an Anniversary Fellowship at the NAM (IOM). In other roles, he was president of the AAAS, chaired the Presidential/ Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment & Risk Management, and served as Associate Director of the OSTP and of OMB (1977-1981). Academically, he earned the B.A. Princeton, M.D. Harvard, and Ph.D. in Genetics, University of Washington. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator, director of the RWJF Clinical Scholars Program, Professor of Medicine and Dean of Public Health & Community Medicine at the University of Washington, then Executive V.P. for Medical Affairs and CEO of the UM Health System at the University of Michigan. He currently chairs the global Human Proteome Project and pursues research on differential expression of splice variants in key cancer pathways. He has served on the NIH Scientific Management Review Board, the CDC Community Preventive Services Task Force, and boards of the Center for Public Integrity, Hastings Center for Bioethics, Center for Naval Analysis, and Weizmann Institute of Science. He served for nearly 28 years on the Amgen Board and now serves on several smaller company boards. In 2013, received the David E. Rogers Award from the AAMC for ìcontributions to health and healthcare in Americaî. He is a musician and tennis player and has three children and six grandchildren.
Historic ACMI Biography
Dr Omenn received his AB degree from Princeton and his MD from Harvard. After internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, he was a US Public Health Service officer and research fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He then undertook a fellowship in Medical Genetics at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned a PhD in Genetics. He stayed on as faculty at the University of Washington, became an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and climbed the academic ranks to Professor of Medicine in 1979. He diversified his portfolio of achievement by serving as White House Fellow at the US Atomic Energy Commission in 1973ñ1974, Associate Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1977 to 1980, Associate Director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, 1980ñ1981, Visiting Professor in the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton in 1981, and the first Science, Engineering and Public Policy Fellow of the Brookings Institution, 1981ñ82. From 1982 to 1997 he was Professor of Environmental Health and Dean of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington, then moved to Michigan to become Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and CEO of the University of Michigan Health System from 1997 to 2002 and Professor of Medicine, Genetics, and Public Health (continuing). Dr Omenn is a leader in the emerging discipline of Proteome Informatics. He launched the Human Plasma Proteome Project of the international Human Proteome Organization. The Human Proteome Organization has enhanced the development of protein-related research databases that are an essential infrastructure for work in protein identification, characterization, and systems biology. At the time of his election, Dr Omenn was Director of the University of Michigan Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics and a senior director of the NIH National Center for Integrative Biomedical Informatics, one of the seven National Centers for Biomedical Computing. He has been active in the AMIA Translational Bioinformatics Summit meetings. He is an elected fellow of the American College of Physicians, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science (president in 2006), and member of the Institute of Medicine. His election to the College recognizes these academic and community service achievements.
Affiliations
The American College of Medical Informatics
ACMI is a college of elected Fellows from the U.S. and abroad who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of medical informatics. It is the central body for a community of scholars and practitioners who are committed to advancing the informatics field.
Year Elected
2009