Thomas N. Denny, MSc, M.Phil

Chief Operating Officer of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) and the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI)
Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center

Thomas N. Denny, MSc, M.Phil, is the chief operating officer of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) and the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI), and a professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. He is also an affiliate member of the Duke Global Health Institute. He has recently been appointed to the Duke University Fuqua School of Business Health Sector Advisory Council. Previously, he was an associate professor of pathology, laboratory medicine and pediatrics, associate professor of preventive medicine and community health, and assistant dean for research in health policy at the New Jersey Medical School, Newark, N.J. He has served on numerous committees for the NIH over the last two decades and currently is the principal investigator of an NIH portfolio in excess of $56 million. Mr. Denny was a 2002-2003 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IOM). As a fellow, he served on the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee with legislation/policy responsibilities in global AIDS, bioterrorism, clinical trials/human subject protection and vaccine related-issues.

As chief operating officer of the Duke Human Vaccine, he has oversight of a research portfolio in excess of $400 million and has the finance, program management, regulatory/compliance, intellectual property, facilities management, biosafety, human relations and information technology offices as direct reports. He has extensive international experience and previously was a consultant to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) project to oversee the development of an HIV and Public Health Center of Excellence laboratory network in Guyana.  In September 2004, the IOM appointed him as a consultant to their Board on Global Health Committee studying the options for overseas placement of U.S. health professionals and the development of an assessment plan for activities related to the 2003 PEPFAR legislative act.  Previously, Mr. Denny helped establish a small laboratory in the Republic of Kalmykia (former Soviet Union) to improve the care of children with HIV/AIDS.  He is also a board member of the Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund Foundation. In 2005, Mr. Denny was named a consulting medical/scientific officer to the WHO Global AIDS Program in Geneva. He has also served as program reviewers for the governments of the Netherlands and South Africa as well as an advisor to several U.S. biotech companies. He currently serves as an advisor to Advanced Liquid Logics, Inc., which is headquartered in Durham, N.C.

Mr. Denny has authored and co-authored more than 95 peer-reviewed papers and serves on the editorial board of Communications in Cytometry and Journal of Clinical Virology. He holds an M.Sc in Molecular and Biomedical Immunology from the University of East London and a degree in Medical Law (M.Phil) from the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine, School of Law, University of Glasgow.  In 1991, he completed a course of study in Strategic Management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In 1993, he completed the Program for Advanced Training in Biomedical Research Management at Harvard School of Public Health. In December 2005, he was inducted as a fellow into the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest medical society in the US.

While living in New Jersey, Mr. Denny was active in his community gaining additional experience from two publicly elected positions. In 1994, he was elected to the Cranford Board of Education, a K-12 district of more than 3,000 students and a budget exceeding $30 million. He served in various capacities before being elected vice-president of the Board in 1995. In 1996, Mr. Denny was elected to his first term on the Cranford Township Committee (municipal governing body) and re-elected to a second term in 1999 after serving a term as Commissioner of Public Safety and then Mayor of Cranford.  In 2000, Mr. Denny was selected by the New Jersey League of Municipalities to Chair the New Jersey Community Mental Health Citizens’ Advisory Board and Mental Health Planning Council as a gubernatorial appointment.