CDM Graduate Named Acting Director of the NIH

Lawrence A. Tabak, a graduate of the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine and a member of the leadership team at the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 years, today became acting director of the NIH. Tabak, who graduated from CDM with a DDS degree in 1977, also has a PhD from the University of Buffalo.

Tabak has been at the NIH since 2000, serving as director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research from 2000 to 2010. He has been principal deputy director and the deputy ethics counselor of NIH since 2010. He was acting NIH principal deputy director in 2009.

He has an active research laboratory that studies the structure, biosynthesis, and function of glycoproteins.