Born in Oceanside, New York, December 18, 1939, Harold E. Varmus received his undergraduate degree (B.A. magna cum laude) from Amherst College in 1961, an M.A. (in literature) the following year from Harvard University, and the M.D. from Columbia University in 1966. From 1967 to 1970 Varmus was an intern in medicine (1966-67) and Assistant Resident in Medicine (1967-68) at Presbyterian Hospital, New York, and Clinical Associate at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, Bethesda, MD (1968-70). In 1970 he was appointed a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the Department of Microbiology at UCSF, for 1970-72. At the end of this period Dr. Varmus was appointed Assistant Professor in Residence, for 1972-74, Associate Professor (1974-79), and full Professor, 1979-1993, in that department. He was on the faculty of the Molecular Medicine group in the Program in Biological Sciences (PIBS) consortium.

In conjunction with J. Michael Bishop, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. They also received the Alfred P. Sloan Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation in 1984. Other research colleagues on the faculty at UCSF included Y.W. Kan (hemoglobinopathies), Gordon Tomkins and Keith Yamamoto (glucocorticoid action), and Donald Ganem (hepatitis B viruses). In 1985 Dr. Varmus was selected to give the Annual Faculty Research Lecture at UCSF entitled "Tree-Shaking and Jelly-Making: Growing Up with Retroviruses."

In 1993, he was appointed Director of the National Institutes of Health where he instituted administrative and personnel reforms, changed the peer review system, created the online publications archive E-biomed, and dealt with political issues such as human embryo research. He resigned in 1999 to become Director of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and was named President of that institution in 2000. In 2002, Varmus was named a recipient of the 2001 National Medal of Science and recognized at a ceremony at the White House with President George W. Bush.

Varmus is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society for Microbiology. He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1984 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1988. Among his honors are the following: Woodrow Wilson Fellow (1961-62); International Fellow of Columbia University (1963-64); Smith, Kline, and French Foreign Fellow (Bareilly, India) in 1961; Senior Dernham Fellow, California Division, American Cancer Society (1970-72); USPHS Research Career Development Awardee, 1972-77; Josiah Macy Scholar (Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, 1978-79); California scientist of the Year, 1982; Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, 1982; Passano Foundation Award, 1983; Armand Hammer Cancer Prize, 1984; Gairdner Foundation International Award, 1984; and the American College of Physicians Award, 1987. He received an honorary degree from Amherst College in 1985 and the Alumni Gold Medal from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1989.

Dr. Varmus served as associate editor of Cell and Virology (1974-84), and as a member of various working groups and study sections at the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health. From 1981-1986, Varmus chaired the Retrovirus Study Group within the Vertebrate Virus Subcommitee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. In this role he convened a subcommittee to investigate proposed nomenclature of AIDS-associated viruses in humans. He has co-authored more than 300 scientific papers and four books, including Genes and the Biology of Cancer for a general audience.