Erin O’Shea is the first woman and the sixth president to lead the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Before becoming President, she served as HHMI’s Chief Scientific Officer for three years. Under her leadership, HHMI has increased its investments in basic biomedical research and has made it a priority to build a more open and inclusive scientific culture.

Since 2016, O’Shea has spearheaded ambitious programs to advance open access publishing, create opportunities for talented scientists of all backgrounds, and accelerate discovery. In 2024, she announced AI@HHMI, a $500 million initiativeexternal link, opens in a new tab to support AI-driven research across the Institute. 

A renowned biologist and former faculty member at Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco, O’Shea is a leader in the fields of gene regulation, signal transduction, and systems biology whose studies of circadian clocks and the mechanisms by which cells process information have received international recognition. O’Shea is also a dedicated teacher and mentor. She continues to pursue her research and support the next generation of scientists in her lab at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus.

She received a PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in biochemistry from Smith College. Washingtonian magazine has routinely named her one of the “most powerful women in Washington.”

Selected Writings

• “A proposal for the future of scientific publishing in the life sciencesexternal link, opens in a new tab,” 2019
• "Looking back and looking forward at Janeliaexternal link, opens in a new tab," 2019