Richard P. Lifton serves as the 11th President of The Rockefeller University, a world-renowned center for biomedical research and graduate education in New York City. He assumed this leadership role in September 2016 following an extensive academic career that included nearly a quarter-century at Yale University, where he held the prestigious Sterling Professorship and chaired the Department of Genetics. A summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Lifton earned both his M.D. and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford University, completed medical residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and began his faculty career at Harvard Medical School from 1986 to 1993 before transitioning to Yale. His leadership trajectory includes founding the Yale Center for Genome Analysis and serving as executive director of major research initiatives.
Lifton has pioneered the use of genetics and genomics to understand fundamental mechanisms underlying human diseases, with groundbreaking contributions to cardiovascular disease, kidney disorders, and hypertension research. He is particularly renowned for discovering mutations in 20 genes that drive blood pressure extremes by altering renal salt reabsorption, work that has informed public health efforts and therapeutic strategies worldwide to prevent heart attacks and strokes. His development of rapid and inexpensive exome sequencing methodologies has enabled large-scale discovery of rare mutations with significant effects on human traits, facilitating the identification of hundreds of new disease genes causing conditions from congenital heart disease to autism. This innovative approach has dramatically advanced clinical genetics, providing new insights into pathophysiology and defining therapeutic targets for numerous previously poorly understood conditions.
Beyond his research excellence, Lifton has demonstrated exceptional institutional leadership by strengthening Rockefeller University's position as one of the world's premier research institutions through strategic initiatives including new campus construction in Manhattan and collaboration in the creation of Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York. His influence extends to national science policy, having co-chaired the planning committee for President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative in 2015, and he serves on advisory boards for major scientific organizations including the Whitehead Institute, Broad Institute, and Simons Foundation. As a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, Lifton continues to shape biomedical research direction while mentoring the next generation of scientific leaders. His current work focuses on expanding the scope of human genetics to define new targets for risk determination, prevention, and therapy across a wider range of human diseases.
