We are excited that our own Stephen Sherry, PhD, is now the new NCBI Director at the National Library
of Medicine (NLM), and the NLM Associate Director for Scientific Data Resources. In these roles, Dr. Sherry will oversee the development and deployment of advanced computational solutions to meet life and health science information needs and facilitate open science and scholarship through a growing array of data, literature, and other information offerings and services from NLM.
Dr. Sherry brings a history of innovation and leadership to the NCBI Director position. Most recently, he served as Acting Director of NCBI, bringing a vision of customer engagement, and modular, interoperable, and cloud-based approaches to the technical platforms for NLM offerings and services. He is also recognized for his inventiveness in leveraging research for public health emergency response. Dr. Sherry has been central in making key innovations at NLM including the ClincalTrials.gov modernization effort and development of the NIH Comparative Genomics Resource, ensuring public input and technical innovation in the process. Dr. Sherry positioned NCBI as a strong collaborative force across the NIH and in supporting major NLM projects including the MEDLINE 2022 initiative, which resulted in 100% automated indexing of the biomedical literature available through NLM’s PubMed and PubMed Central (PMC).
“Dr. Sherry has the skills, knowledge, and insight to deliver creative, forward-thinking scientific and operational leadership for NLM and the communities we serve,” said NLM Director Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD. “His vast experience, expertise, and vision for NCBI is a great fit for NLM’s eye to the future and its commitment to drive innovation.”
Throughout his tenure at NCBI, Dr. Sherry has participated in many NIH efforts to characterize human genetic diversity and has served on numerous working groups across NIH to address a range of data science issues including the development of the genomic data sharing policy, privacy analysis for risk-sensitive data sets, and advances in scientific publications.
Dr. Sherry earned his PhD in Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University in 1996 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Louisiana State University Medical Center prior to joining NLM in 1998.