Background
Hiroshi Nakajima was born on May 16, 1928 in Chiba, Japan. He was a son of Ryosuke and Junko (Takanuki) Nakajima.
中嶋 宏
Pharmacologist politician neuroscientist
Hiroshi Nakajima was born on May 16, 1928 in Chiba, Japan. He was a son of Ryosuke and Junko (Takanuki) Nakajima.
In 1955 he received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Tokyo Medical College, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1960. In 1958 he obtained a degree in neuropsychiatry and pharmacology from the University of Paris.
Nakajima joined WHO in 1974 in the position of Scientist, Drug Evaluation and Monitoring. In 1976, he became Chief of the WHO Drug Policies and Management Unit. It was in this position that he played a key role in developing the concept of essential drugs, as Secretary of the first Expert Committee on the subject. In 1978, the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific nominated and elected Dr Nakajima as Regional Director, an office he held for two consecutive terms until 1988, when he was elected Director-General of WHO. In 1993, Dr Nakajima was re-elected to a second term of office as Director-General. In 1997, Dr Nakajima announced that he was not seeking another re-election and that his term of office would end in July 1998.
During his leadership at WHO he had a famous conflict with then head of the WHO's AIDS program Jonathan Mann which resulted in Mann's resignation. Conflict and its impact on WHO's AIDS efforts has been documented as a part of PBS Frontline documentary "The age of AIDS".
Fellow College Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan, Royal College Physicians. Member Academy Medical France (foreign associate), Japanese Pharmacol. Society (honorary), Academy Nationale Pharmacie Paris (correspondent), Academy Royale de Society Française Médecine Légale de Belgique (honorary foreign).
On March 30, 1984 he married Martha Ann DeWitt. They had two children: Junichi Jèrôme, Giro Roch.