David Relman
David A. Relman is the Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor in Medicine, and a Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University, and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. He is also Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford and served as the Center’s Science Co-Director from 2013-2017.
Relman was an early pioneer in the identification of previously unrecognized microbial pathogens, in the development of molecular methods for microbial diagnosis, and in the modern study of the human microbiome (the microbial communities that inhabit the human body). A 2005 paper was one of the first to describe the diversity of the human gut microbiota and has been cited more than 9400 times. His research on the human microbiome has been awarded an NIH Pioneer Award (2006), NIH Transformative Research Award (2013), and the Alexander Fleming Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (2021). He currently examines microbiome stability and resilience using human subjects and experimental clinical perturbation.
He served as President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Chair of the Forum on Microbial Threats at the US National Academies of Science, and as an inaugural member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and is currently a member of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (DHS). He has advised the US Government on future biological threats for more than two decades. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2011 and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2022.