Leonard Sacks

Professor Leonard Sacks

Leonard Sacks received his MBBCh from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1979. In 1987 he moved to the USA, where he completed fellowships in immunopathology at the University of Syracuse in Upstate New York, and Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Washington DC.

He worked first as an attending physician in Washington DC, then at Sizwe Hospital in Johannesburg, focusing on clinical care and research among patients with Tuberculosis, HIV infection and other tropical diseases. In 1998 he joined the US Food and Drug Administration as medical reviewer in the Office of New Drugs.

Subsequent positions included acting director of the Office of Critical Path Programs and associate director for clinical methodology in the Office of Medical Policy in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. In this capacity he has led efforts to support the use of electronic technology in clinical drug development.

Aside from his involvement in the design and analysis of clinical trials, he maintains a special interest in tuberculosis and other tropical diseases and has published and presented extensively on these topics. He holds academic appointments as Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at George Washington University, and at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Besides his work in medicine, Leonard continues to dabble in swimming (thank you Miss Stephens) writing, (his novel ‘Brutus” received an honorable mention at the 2015 New York Book Festival– thank you Rose) and playing the violin.