Thomas Michel, MD, PhD, Dean for Education

Dr. Thomas Michel became the first Dean for Education at Harvard Medical School in June 2008. He is an HMS professor of medicine and biochemistry, and is a senior physician in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where his laboratory studies signal transduction pathways in the cardiovascular system using biochemical and cell biological approaches. He sees patients as a practicing cardiologist and clinician-teacher at BWH.

After earning his AB in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College, Dr. Michel received his PhD and MD degrees from Duke University, followed by clinical training in internal medicine and in cardiology at BWH. In addition to many awards and honors for his discoveries in cardiovascular signal transduction, he received the Eugene Braunwald Award for Excellence in Teaching in Clinical Cardiology in 2005 and was named a Scholar of the Academy at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Michel has been active for many years in teaching undergraduates, medical students, and graduate students at Harvard. He served for eight years as Chief of Cardiology at the VA Boston Healthcare System, and is the founding director of the Harvard Program in Human Biology and Translational Medicine. Immediately prior to being named Dean, he served as leader of the Strategic Advisory Group on Education for the School’s strategic planning process.

In his role as Dean for Education, Dr. Michel advises the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine on broad aspects of education at the School. He holds the Federman Chair for Medical Education and chairs the newly-formed HMS Education Council, which brings together leaders of educational programs across Harvard, including the Masters of the HMS Academic Societies, directors of the HMS Graduate Programs, hospital-based physician-educators, directors of the Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and the MD-PhD programs, as well as leading educators from Harvard College and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Visit the Michel Lab.