Javaid I. Sheikh, MD, is Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Dr. Sheikh joined WCMC-Q as vice dean for research in April 2007, was appointed Interim Dean in January, 2009, and assumed the position of permanent Dean on January 1, 2010. He holds a tenured faculty appointment as Professor at WCMC in New York City.
Dr. Sheikh came to WCMC-Q from Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and chairman of the board of Palo Alto Institute for Research and Education (PAIRE). Dr. Sheikh was also director of the Cooperative Studies Program, and research director for the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at the Stanford affiliate VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS).
Dr. Sheikh is a graduate of King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. He started his psychiatry residency training at University of Connecticut and completed it at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also completed two research fellowships at Stanford after finishing his residency.
An internationally renowned researcher in the area of anxiety disorders, chronic stress related conditions, and cognitive impairment, he has published more than 125 scientific articles and more than 70 abstracts from proceedings of scientific meetings. During the 1990s, he conducted the first studies to delineate the impact of aging on anxiety disorders, particularly a detailed characterization of panic disorder in aging patients. His most recent investigations, funded by the National Institutes of Health, have focused on the interface of central fear circuits and sleep architecture in patients with chronic anxiety disorders.
Dr. Sheikh served as the chief of medical staff at the VAPAHCS and associate dean for veterans affairs at Stanford from 2001 to 2006. In this dual role, he had the responsibility for the overall direction, implementation, and functioning of academic programs (education, research, program development, faculty recruitment and retention) based at the VAPAHCS, while overseeing all clinical care at this research intensive tertiary care health care system with seven satellite sites extending over 13,000 square miles and an annual clinical care budget of more than $400 million. As the Chairman of the Board of PAIRE, he also oversaw the substantial research endeavors of the approximately 100 Stanford faculty members based at the VAPAHCS. Dr. Sheikh was listed in the "Best Doctors in America." from 1997-2001.