Herbert Pardes, MD

Though mergers, affiliations, and financial challenges pervade all of academic medicine, New York City exhibits in microcosm the changes taking place throughout the country. At the helm of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons is Herbert Pardes, MD, who came to Columbia in 1984 from the NIH and has served as dean since 1989. Since becoming dean, Pardes has received high marks for re-invigorating the academic strengths of Columbia while skillfully managing the financial issues faced by an inner-city medical center. Interviewed in his office in upper Manhattan, Pardes candidly discussed life and times in the big city and the difficulties of maintaining an emphasis on research in an era when money talks.