Dr. Javaid I. Sheikh has been named dean at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q), effective Jan. 1, 2010. Dr. Sheikh has served in the capacity of interim dean at WCMC-Q since Jan. 1, 2009. He joined WCMC-Q as vice dean for research in early 2007 from Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. He holds a tenure faculty appointment as professor at WCMC in New York City. The Executive Committees of the Boards of Overseers and Trustees will vote on the appointment at their January meetings.
Under Dr. Sheikh's leadership as vice dean for research, WCMC-Q has established a first-rate translational and clinical research infrastructure, including core laboratories and research administration personnel. As interim dean, he has begun to implement a five-year strategic plan for the next phase of WCMC-Q's development, which will better integrate Weill Cornell's tripartite mission of education, research and clinical care.
Dr. Sheikh is an internationally renowned researcher in the area of anxiety disorders. During the 1990s, he conducted the first studies to delineate the impact of aging on anxiety disorders, particularly a detailed characterization of panic disorder in aging patients. His most recent investigations, funded by the National Institutes of Health, have focused on the interface of central fear circuits and sleep architecture in patients with chronic anxiety disorders. He has published more than 125 scientific articles, in addition to numerous abstracts documenting his research findings.
From 2001 to 2006, Dr. Sheikh served as associate dean for veterans affairs at Stanford and as chief of medical staff at the Stanford affiliate VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS). As the chairman of the board of Palo Alto Institute for Research and Education, he also oversaw the substantial research endeavors of more than 100 Stanford faculty members based at the VAPAHCS. As the research director for the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and as clinical director for the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center at VAPAHCS, he oversaw broad-based research programs focusing on the neurobiology of anxiety disorders.
Dr. Sheikh received his medical degree from King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, and completed his psychiatry residency training and two research fellowships at Stanford University School of Medicine. For more information, visit WCMC-Q online. --------