Stefano Bertuzzi, Ph.D., MPH, is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). Bertuzzi has wide experience in science policy and scholarly publishing. Prior to joining as the CEO of ASM, Bertuzzi was the Executive Director at the American Society for Cell Biology for 3 years and was a senior scientific executive at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he served as Director of the Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications at the National Institute of Mental Health and as a science policy advisor to the NIH Director, Dr. Elias Zerhouni. He also served as Director of Neurogenetic Laboratory in the Dulbecco Institute Telethon Scientist in Milan, Italy.
Bertuzzi received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biotechnology from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, Italy with a fellowship in the Microbiology Institute, and his Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a specialization in health policy.
Throughout his career, Bertuzzi led the U.S. government negotiations with the European Union (EU) to achieve funding reciprocity between the NIH and the EU. He also worked with the Obama White House to develop an information system to capture the benefits of scientific investments during the Great Recession of 2008. He is one of the leaders who spearheaded the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) to fight the misuse of journal impact factor metric. He contributed to the NIH revision of the peer review system and to the development of the key public access policy for NIH funded research, which started the Open Access movement in scholarly publishing.
Most recently, Bertuzzi led ASM's efforts to address the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This included working directly with the White House COVID-19 Task Force, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to increase access to diagnostic testing supplies and address roadblocks to coronavirus testing. Bertuzzi penned a
New York Times editorial and an
mBio editorial outlining testing roadblocks and emphasizing the need for microbiologists and other scientists to support clinical laboratories to help contain the pandemic.
He has authored numerous research publications, editorials and science policy pieces in top journals and is recipient of many national and international awards. Bertuzzi is a thoughtful leader in science, a fellow of the prestigious Aspen Institute and a member of the Cosmos Club. In 2020, the President of the Italian Republic bestowed upon Bertuzzi the title of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy, one of the highest honors in the Italian Republic.