Skip to main content

Michael H Merson

Michael H Merson

Michael Howard Merson

Scroll

Interim Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Clinical Professor of Global and Environmental Health

Professional overview

Michael Merson is Interim Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a Clinical Professor of Global and Environmental Health at NYU. He also the William Joklik Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Global Health at Duke University, where he served as the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute and as Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Affairs. His current research is focused on policy issues related to the response to pandemics, evaluating the rollout of Paxlovid in low-income countries and on ways to regain trust in public health.

Prior to NYU, he joined the faculty at Yale University as its first Dean of Public Health. Before entering academia, between 1980 and 1995, Dr. Merson served as director of the World Health Organization (WHO) programs on Diarrheal Diseases and Acute Respiratory Infections, and subsequently the WHO Global Program on AIDS. He has authored over 150 articles, is the senior editor of a leading global health textbook “Global Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies” and lead author of The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response on the history of the global response to AIDS. He has served in advisory capacities for UNAIDS, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, World Bank, World Economic Forum, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and was an advisor to various private sector entities on the COVID-19 pandemic. He has two honorary degrees and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Education

B.A., 1966, cum laude, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
M.D., 1970, summa cum laude, SUNY, Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn, New York

Honors and awards

Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Distinguished Leadership Award (2018)
Duke Medical Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award (2017)
Master Teacher Award in Preventive Medicine, Downstate Medical Center (2010)
Outstanding Contribution to the Campaign Against HIV/AIDS, Russian Association Against AIDS (2000)
Connecticut Health Commissioner’s AIDS Leadership Award (1998)
Connecticut Health Commissioner’s AIDS Leadership Award (1997)
Frank Babbott Alumni Award (1995)
Surgeon General's Exemplary Service Medal (1993)
Commendation Medal, US Public Health Service; (1986)
Arthur S. Flemming Award for Outstanding Federal Service (1983)
Commendation Medal, US Public Health Service (1975)

Publications

Publications

A summary of the literature on global hearing impairment : Current status and priorities for action

Failed retrieving data.

Results of the NIMH collaborative HIV/Sexually transmitted disease prevention trial of a community popular opinion leader intervention

Failed retrieving data.

The role of academic health science systems in the transformation of medicine

Failed retrieving data.

Diagnosis of Acute HIV infection in Connecticut

Failed retrieving data.

Identifying acute HIV infection in Rhode Island.

Failed retrieving data.

Strategies used in the detection of Acute/early HIV infections. The NIMH multisite acute HIV infection study : I

Failed retrieving data.

Towards a common definition of global health

Failed retrieving data.

A global partnership in medical education between Duke University and the National University of Singapore

Failed retrieving data.

Combination HIV prevention

Failed retrieving data.

Government-NGO collaboration and sustainability of orphans and vulnerable children projects in southern Africa

Failed retrieving data.

The global health and diagnostic (flow) cytometry - Breakthroughs in HIV and tuberculosis

Failed retrieving data.

The history and challenge of HIV prevention

Failed retrieving data.

A social cognitive model of health for HIV-positive adults receiving care in India

Failed retrieving data.

HIV and drug use in Eurasia

Failed retrieving data.

Living with HIV infection : Perceptions of patients with access to care at a non-governmental organization in Chennai, India

Failed retrieving data.

The HIV-AIDS pandemic at 25 - The global response

Failed retrieving data.

Uganda's HIV/AIDS epidemic : Guest editorial

Failed retrieving data.

Unprotected intercourse for extra money among commercial sex workers in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Failed retrieving data.

Improving home-based care in Southern Africa : An analysis of project evaluations

Failed retrieving data.

Global health and university patents

Failed retrieving data.

Allocating HIV-prevention resources : Balancing efficiency and equity

Failed retrieving data.

Estimating the cost of unmet HIV-prevention needs in the United States

Failed retrieving data.

Overcoming barriers to collaboration between basic behavioral scientists and public health scientists in research on mental disorders

Failed retrieving data.

Mission now possible for AIDS fund

Failed retrieving data.

Success hinges on support for treatment

Failed retrieving data.

Contact

michael.merson@nyu.edu 708 Broadway New York, NY, 10003