Lloyd B. Minor, MD

Lloyd B. Minor, MD, is a scientist, surgeon, and academic leader. He is the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, a position he has held since December 2012. He also is a professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and a professor of Bioengineering and of Neurobiology, by courtesy, at Stanford University.

As dean, Dr. Minor plays an integral role in setting strategy for the clinical enterprise of Stanford Medicine, an academic medical center that includes the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. He oversees the quality of Stanford Medicine’s physicians on the faculty and in the growing clinical networks and physician practices.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Minor reacted quickly to implement protocols to ensure the safety of patients and of the Stanford Medicine community. He emphasized open communication, transparency, and accountability as he and the leadership team responded to the unprecedented challenges that affected every facet of the enterprise’s activities.

With Dr. Minor’s leadership, Stanford Medicine is leading the biomedical revolution through Precision Health. Empowering people to lead healthy lives, Precision Health is a fundamental shift to more proactive and personalized health care that predicts and prevents disease before it strikes and cures it decisively if it does. His book, “Discovering Precision Health: Predict, Prevent, and Cure to Advance Health and Well-Being,” highlights how biomedical advances are dramatically improving our ability to treat and cure complex diseases.

Dr. Minor also spearheaded the creation of an Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP) that reaffirms Stanford Medicine’s Precision Health vision while articulating a new commitment to be Human Centered and Discovery Led. An unprecedented roadmap, the ISP aligns Stanford Medicine’s three entities, informs how each will develop strategies and make decisions, and is activating more than two dozen high-impact initiatives across Stanford Medicine.

In 2021, Dr. Minor articulated and began realizing a bold vision for transforming the future of life sciences at Stanford University, in the Bay Area, and beyond. This multi-decade journey will leverage the region’s unique strengths in information sciences, technology, and biology and biomedicine to establish a biomedical innovation hub that through collaboration enhances fundamental understanding of biology and translates promising discoveries into transformative leaps that promote human and planetary well-being.

Dr. Minor has long provided significant support for basic science research and for clinical and translational research at Stanford. Through bold initiatives in medical education and increased support for MD and PhD students, Dr. Minor is committed to inspiring and training future leaders. He also has increased student financial aid and expanded faculty leadership opportunities.

Among other accomplishments Dr. Minor has led the development and implementation of an innovative model for cancer research and patient care delivery at Stanford Medicine and has launched an initiative in biomedical data science to harness the power of big data and create a learning health care system.

Before Stanford, Dr. Minor was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs of The Johns Hopkins University. As provost, Dr. Minor launched many university-wide initiatives such as the Gateway Sciences Initiative to support pedagogical innovation, and the Doctor of Philosophy Board to promote excellence in PhD education. He worked with others around the university and health system to coordinate the Individualized Health Initiative, which aimed to use genetic information to transform health care.

Prior to his appointment as provost in 2009, Dr. Minor was the Andelot Professor and director (chair) of the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and otolaryngologist-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. During his six-year tenure, he expanded annual research funding by more than half and increased clinical activity by more than 30 percent, while strengthening teaching efforts and student training.

With more than 160 published articles and chapters, Dr. Minor is an expert in balance and inner ear disorders. Through neurophysiological investigations of eye movements and neuronal pathways, his work has identified adaptive mechanisms responsible for compensation to vestibular injury in a model system for studies of motor learning (the vestibulo-ocular reflex). The synergies between this basic research and clinical studies have led to improved methods for the diagnosis and treatment of balance disorders. In recognition of his work in refining a treatment for Ménière’s disease, Dr. Minor received the Prosper Ménière Society’s gold medal in 2010.

In the medical community, Dr. Minor is perhaps best known for his discovery of superior canal dehiscence syndrome, a debilitating disorder characterized by sound- or pressure-induced dizziness. In 1998, Dr. Minor and colleagues published a description of the clinical manifestations of the syndrome and related its cause to an opening (dehiscence) in the bone covering the superior canal. He subsequently developed a surgical procedure that corrects the problem and alleviates symptoms.

Dr. Minor received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Brown University. He trained at Duke University Medical Center and the University of Chicago Medical Center and completed a research fellowship at the University of Chicago and a clinical fellowship at The Otology Group and The EAR Foundation in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 2012, Dr. Minor was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.