Prof. Christopher J.L. Murray, MD, DPhil, is the Chair and Professor of Health Metrics Sciences and Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. His career has focused on improving health for everyone worldwide by improving health evidence. As a physician and health economist, his work has led to the development of a range of new methods and empirical studies to strengthen health measurement, analyze the performance of public health and medical care systems, and assess the cost-effectiveness of health technologies. From 1998 to 2003, Dr. Murray worked at the World Health Organization (WHO), where he served as the Executive Director of the Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster. He went on to become Director of the Harvard Initiative for Global Health and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, as well as the Richard Saltonstall Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, from 2003 until 2007. 

In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established IHME and selected Murray as its leader. IHME provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world’s most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them. Dr. Murray has authored or edited 16 books, many book chapters, and more than 420 journal articles in internationally peer- reviewed publications. Dr. Murray holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science degrees from Harvard University, a DPhil in International Health Economics from Oxford University, and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School.