Michael Birt is the founding Director of the Center for Health and Aging at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and Executive Director of the Pacific Health Summit. He is also an Affiliate Investigator at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Prior to his tenure at the NBR Center for Health and Aging, Dr. Birt co-founded a leading US-Asia biomedical business development company and has consulted for many of the world’s leading healthcare, medical technology, and consumer product companies. In his academic career, Dr. Birt was a professor at the University of Washington and Wellesley College, and served as a visiting professor at Keio University and Hitotsubashi University in Japan. He is the author of numerous publications, including “Chronic Neglect: Meet the Developing World’s New Health Emergency—the Rich World’s Diseases” in Foreign Policy (September/October 2006).

Dr. Birt is the author of numerous publications and consulting studies. His most recent article is “Chronic Neglect: Meet the Developing World’s New Health Emergency—the Rich World’s Diseases” in Foreign Policy (September/October 2006). He is co-author of Negotiating the Gray Maze: The Business of Medicine in Japan (1997) and has written articles for publications such as The Journal of Japanese Studies, The Asian Wall Street Journal, and The Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, as well as numerous industry consulting reports.

Dr. Birt received his Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from Princeton University. He is fluent in spoken and written Japanese.