Who Is Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s Pick To Lead US Health Research? News24 –

India and Indians are making waves in US after Trump assumed office as president in January 20, 2025. From then the US president has been top picking the Indians to lead various administartive post of the country. Many individuals of Indian origin have been appointed to some of the country’s highest positions, ranging from the Department of Justice and White House policy advisors to the FBI. The earlier Trump presidency, between 2017 and 2021, also had Indian Americans in key positions including Nikki Haley as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

US Confirmation

The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed Dr Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian-American doctor and a professor of health policy at Standford University, as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Robert F Kennedy Jr. According to US Senate website, Jay Bhattacharya won the vote 53-47 during the first session of the roll call vote in the 119th Congress. He was Donald Trump’s top pick in November To lead US’ National Institutes of Health.

Who Is Jay Bhattacharya?

Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of health policy at Stanford University, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Hoover Institution. He also directs Stanford’s Centre for Demography and Economics of Health and Ageing, and his research emphasises the role of government programmes, biomedical innovation, and economics. US administration statement further added that Bhattacharya and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr will be working together to restore the NIH to a “Gold Standard of Medical Research.”

Jay Bhattacharya As An Author

Jay Bhattacharya is a co-author of the ‘Great Barrington Declaration’, an alternative to lockdowns proposed in October 2020. His peer-reviewed research has been published in economics, statistics, legal, medical, public health, and health policy journals.

Earlier in February, the US Senate voted to confirm Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist, as US Health and Human Services Secretary. He was confirmed as US Health and Human Services Secretary with a vote of 52-48.

Indians Holding Top Positions In The US

Indians holding top positions in the US includes Jay Bhattacharya as nominee for director of the National Institutes of Health, Harmeet Dhillon to run the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, Kash Patel to lead the FBI, Sriram Krishnan as senior White House policy advisor for artificial intelligence, Vivek Ramaswamy as co-chair of the new Department of Government Efficiency. Paul Kapur, a renowned expert on India-Pakistan security and nuclear affairs, has been nominated as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.