Dr. Jeffrey Flier to be named Harvard medical dean

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Word is that Dr. Jeffrey Flier (left), chief academic officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a nationally known researcher on diabetes and obesity, will be named the new dean of Harvard Medical School, as early as today.

Two Harvard officials with knowledge of the search said today that Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust is close to making an announcement about Flier's appointment.

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, a cardiologist who trained at Brigham and Women's Hospital and is director of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Washington, D.C., dropped out of contention, the officials said. Just as Faust is the first female president of Harvard, Nabel would have been the first female dean of the medical school.

But Nabel did not want the job for family reasons; her husband, Dr. Gary Nabel, is heading the National Institutes of Health's search for an AIDS vaccine, also in Washington.

A search committee evaluated an initial list of several hundred candidates. Faust conducts the final interviews, makes the ultimate decision, and negotiates the new dean's salary, resources, and fund-raising responsibilities.