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Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) has advanced fundamental scientific knowledge at the intersection of virology, oncology, and genetics, both as a researcher and as Director of NIH and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. With his long-time collaborator J. Michael Bishop, Varmus developed a new theory of the origin of cancer, which holds that the disease arises from mutations in certain of our own normal genes. These mutations are triggered by environmental carcinogens or by naturally occurring errors in the course of cell division and DNA replication. As an expert on retroviruses he chaired the scientific advisory committee that in 1986 proposed the name human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for the etiologic agent of AIDS. He was a co-recipient (along with J. Michael Bishop) of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. In 1993 he became the first Nobel laureate to head NIH. He is the 14th Director of the National Cancer Institute, a post he was appointed to by President Obama. Varmus is an avid bicyclist and an Advisory Committee member of Transportation Alternatives the New York City-based advocacy group for pedestrians and cyclists. He is also a runner, rower, fisherman and vegan.
