A senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and former World Health Organization official was named the next dean of the School of Public Health at Harvard University, reports The Boston Globe.

Julio Frenk, who was a visiting professor at the university at one time, will assume the role of dean in January, succeeding Barry R. Bloom. Dr. Frenk was Mexico’s health minister from 2000 to 2006.

In a statement announcing the news on Harvard’s Web site, Harvard’s president Drew Faust called Dr. Frenk “a highly influential figure at the crossroads of scholarship and practice, known for his profound concern with how scientific evidence can foster improvements in health systems and policy in societies around the world.”

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