Michael F. Huerta, PhD; Acting Deputy Deputy Director for Operations and Innovation, NLM

As Acting Deputy Director for Operations and Innovation at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Dr. Michael F. Huerta develops frameworks and models for innovation and new growth opportunities. Dr. Huerta also provides administrative oversight for the overall NLM research portfolio, serves as NLM Chief Diversity Officer, and provides senior executive support to NLM’s Division and Office Directors.

Dr. Huerta has spent more than 30 years at NIH and has made major contributions to the development and implementation of open science, as well as large-scale, open, digital biomedical research and technology initiatives. Most recently, he directed the NLM Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) and served as Associate Director of NLM for Strategy to identify, implement, and assess strategic directions of NLM. Throughout his tenure at NIH, Dr. Huerta has led many NIH research initiatives, including the NIH Human Connectome Project, the National Database for Autism Research, and the U.S. Human Brain Project, which was key in creating and establishing the field of neuroinformatics. He chairs several committees across NIH and NLM to help realize the promise of data science and open science for biomedicine.