Huntington F. Willard, PhD

Leadership Chancellor Administration Victor J. Dzau, MD R. Sanders Williams, MD Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD Catherine Lynch Gilliss, DNSc Asif Ahmad Monte D. Brown, MD Robert M. Califf, MD Michael Cuffe, MD Karen Frush, MD Mary Ann Fuchs, RN William J. Fulkerson Jr., MD Ranga R. Krishnan, MB ChB Kenneth C. Morris Michael J. Morsberger Paul Newman Molly O'Neill Robert L. Taber, PhD Douglas B. Vinsel Kerry Watson Huntington F. Willard, PhD Mark Newman, MD Kenneth Kreuzer, PhD Elizabeth DeLong, PhD Brigid Hogan, PhD J. Lloyd Michener, MD Thomas F. Tedder, PhD Harvey Jay Cohen, MD Thomas Petes, PhD James McNamara, MD Haywood Brown, MD David L. Epstein, MD Salvatore Pizzo, MD, PhD Joseph St. Geme III, MD Anthony R. Means, PhD Ranga R. Krishnan, MB ChB Christopher Willett, MD Carl E. Ravin, MD Danny O. Jacobs, MD Board Members
	Home > Leadership > Administration > Huntington F. Willard, PhD Huntington F. Willard, PhD Huntington F. Willard, PhD, was appointed the first director of the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy at Duke University and vice chancellor for genome sciences at Duke University Medical Center in December of 2002. He is also a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. Willard is a respected leader nationally and internationally in the field of human genetics. Prior to coming to Duke University, he held faculty positions at the University of Toronto, Stanford University, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and was chairman of the Department of Genetics at Case Western Reserve from 1992 to 2001. He was also director and president of the Research Institute of University Hospitals of Cleveland from 1999 until moving to Duke. He has served in elected leadership positions for the American Society of Human Genetics (president in 2001), the Association of Professors of Human/Medical Genetics, and the Human Genome Organization. He is a former member and chair of the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Committee and former chair of the Mammalian Genetics study section at the National Institutes of Health. Willard currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society for the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services of the U.S. Government. He also serves on review boards for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, as well as on Scientific Advisory Boards for several biotechnology companies. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals and is co-founder and executive editor of Human Molecular Genetics. Willard has been the author or co-author of over 275 scientific publications. He is also co-author of Genetics in Medicine, a widely used textbook, now in its sixth edition. Willard's research interests include genome sciences and their broad implications for medicine and society, human chromosome structure and function, X chromosome inactivation and epigenetic mechanisms of gene silencing, as well as development of human artificial chromosomes for studies of gene transfer and functional genomics.