Robert M. Califf, M.D., became Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination on February 24, 2016, by a vote of 89 to 4. From February 2015 until his appointment as FDA Commissioner, Dr. Califf served as FDA Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco.
Prior to joining FDA, Dr. Califf was a professor of medicine and vice chancellor for clinical and translational research at Duke University. He is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine, and completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a fellowship in cardiology at Duke.
Stephen Ostroff, M.D., FDA's Chief Scientist, had been serving as Acting FDA Commissioner since Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., stepped down as FDA Commissioner in March 2015.