David J. Skorton

David Skorton became Cornell University’s 12th president on July 1, 2006 and holds faculty appointments at the rank of professor in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and in Biomedical Engineering at the College of Engineering on Cornell’s Ithaca campus. He is a seasoned administrator, board-certified cardiologist, biomedical researcher, musician, and advocate for the arts and humanities.

Before assuming his position at Cornell, he was president of the University of Iowa (UI) for three years, beginning in March 2003, and a faculty member at UI for 26 years. Co-founder and co-director of the UI Adolescent and Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, he has focused his research on congenital heart disease in adolescents and adults, cardiac imaging, and computer image processing.

He has published over 200 articles, reviews, book chapters, and two major texts in the areas of cardiac imaging and image processing. He has been the recipient of over 30 grants for research.

A national leader in research ethics, he was charter president of the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc., the first entity organized specifically to accredit human research protection programs. He has served on the boards and committees of many other national organizations, including the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the American Society of Echocardiography, the Association of American Universities, the Council on Competitiveness, and the Korea America Friendship Society.

He is also vice chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum, an independent, non-profit organization of Fortune 500 CEOs, leaders of colleges and universities, and foundation executives. He is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He earned his bachelor's degree in Psychology in 1970 and an M.D. in 1974, both from Northwestern University. He completed his medical residency and held a fellowship in cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.