U. Wash Program Courts Murray

The University of Washington (UW) is seeking to lure Christopher J.L. Murray ’83—the current director of the Harvard Initiative for Global Health and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies—to its Seattle campus, where he would lead a new global health center tentatively called the “Health Metrics Institute.”

Murray had previously planned to lead a similar institute at Harvard that would have been funded by a $115 million donation from Lawrence J. Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corporation. But Ellison backed out on his pledge last summer due to what he said was his lack of faith in the University after President Lawrence H. Summers’ resignation.

Murray is currently seeking funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the Seattle institute, according to a Feb. 7 proposal by the deans of the UW School of Medicine and the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

The Gates Foundation, which has an endowment of $33 billion according to its Web site, is the only non-profit organization to boast a larger endowment than Harvard University, which has just over $29 billion in its coffers.

Murray’s only comment was that discussions with UW and the Gates Foundation are underway.

“It is premature at this point to make any other comments,” Murray wrote in an e-mail on Friday.

Paul G. Ramsey ’71—the dean of the UW School of Medicine and an alumnus of both Harvard College and Harvard Medical School—said Murray’s extensive experience in global health makes him the ideal head of the planned institute.

“He’s developed this field in many ways,” Ramsey said. “His work at the World Health Organization and [in] other settings has led him to be identified as an expert in the field.”

UW Provost Phyllis M. Wise said she also sees Murray as a promising candidate.

“We believe that being able to attract a person like Chris Murray would enhance our ability to provide a better educational experience for our students and also to be able to contribute to research in the area of global health,” Wise said.

If negotiations go through, Ramsey anticipates that the Health Metrics Institute could push UW, whose Department of Global Health was established only a year ago, into world prominence in the field.

“We believe this will be the strongest institute of its time in the world,” Ramsey said.

Wise anticipates that the institute will eventually employ as many as 100 people. She said that the institute will not only be devoted to research, but also to training and education in association with UW’s Department of Global Health.

“We’re developing both undergraduate and graduate programs,” Wise said.

Ramsey said that UW also sent a proposal to the state of Washington in December to seek additional funding for the institute.

“Our governor has included funding for this global activity in her budget,” Ramsey said, but he added that “the governor’s budget will be dependent on the [state] legislature.”

—Staff writer Angela A. Sun can be reached at asun@fas.harvard.edu.