Which individual was confirmed by the US Senate as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NI

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian-origin professor at Stanford School of Medicine, was confirmed by the US Senate as the 18th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His appointment was approved through a 53-47 roll-call vote during the first session of the 119th Congress. Dr. Bhattacharya succeeds Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli, whose term concluded on January 17, 2025. Beyond his professorship in Health Policy at Stanford University, Dr. Bhattacharya serves as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and directs Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. He gained particular attention in October 2020 as a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for focused protections rather than broad lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.