Steven J. Phillips, M.D.  has served as deputy director for research and education at NLM/NIH since 1999. He is also the principal advisor to the chairman for medical affairs at Global Security Institute. In 2002, he became a founder and the chief medical officer of Cardiovascular Hospitals of America, LLC. He retired from that position in 2001, but remains an NIH contractor. He has been the principal investigator for numerous research projects. Dr. Phillips has enjoyed a highly successful career as a board certified general and thoracic surgeon, and is a business entrepreneur who has established several important programs and laboratories, and has been granted six patents. He established a cardiac surgery program at the University of Oregon to Des Moines, Iowa, which today is the Iowa Heart Center, a private medical group with a highly profitable business that has grown to more than 55 physicians and 300 employees specializing in cardiovascular disease. He developed a funded cardiovascular research laboratory at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University. During the past 30 years, his team has implanted the first artificial heart in Iowa, performed the first heart transplant in central Iowa, and invented the technology for percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass. Dr. Phillips received the Governor of Iowa Science Medal for his scientific efforts and he served as the national science advisor to the Iowa Department of Health. He retired from active medical practice in 2005, but he has active medical licenses in Iowa and Colorado. He is a graduate of Hobart College and Tufts University School of Medicine.