The new director of NIH's Fogarty International Center is a pediatric neurosurgeon who also holds a professorship in electrical and computer engineering. That's not a typo.
Dr. Steven Schiff, M.D., Ph.D., took the helm on June 4, 2026, controlling an annual budget of roughly $95 million — most of which goes to research grants and training programs that link U.S. investigators with collaborators abroad. His appointment came directly from NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who praised Schiff's development of "predictive personalized public health."
From Neural Engineering to Underdiagnosed Brain Infections
Schiff founded the Center for Neural Engineering at Penn State and later helped create the Center for Global Neurosurgery at Yale. His research portfolio spans neural control engineering, sustainable health engineering, and global health epidemiology. But the finding that should make every infectious disease specialist sit up: Schiff led the identification of neonatal paenibacilliosis, a severe infant brain infection caused primarily by Paenibacillus thiaminolyticus. This disease is now recognized as an underdiagnosed cause of neonatal sepsis in resource-limited settings — and has recently turned up in infants in the United States.
Two NIH Director's Awards — the Pioneer Award (2015) and Transformative Award (2018) — funded his work on sustainable control of infant infections in the developing world. Nearly 250 scientific publications back up the resume.
What the Budget Buys
Fogarty's mandate is straightforward: support international research collaborations and train the next generation of global health scientists. Schiff's background as both a clinician and an engineer suggests a shift toward data-driven, systems-level interventions rather than traditional charity-style programs. He also sits on the FDA's Medical Devices Advisory Committee, a detail that hints at practical regulatory experience most academic appointees lack.
Schiff earned his undergraduate degree from MIT, his M.D. and Ph.D. from Duke, and completed a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American College of Surgeons, the American Physical Society, and three other professional societies.
Whether $95 million and a systems-engineering approach can dent the global burden of neonatal sepsis remains to be seen. But putting someone who found a previously unknown bacterial cause of infant brain infections in charge of international research is at least a signal that NIH expects concrete discoveries, not just diplomatic handshakes.
Source: NIH Selects Dr. Steven Schiff as Director of Fogarty International Center, Associate Director for International Research
Domain: nih.gov
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