Physician, researcher and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) interim dean Javaid I. Sheikh has been appointed dean of the college, effective Jan. 1.

Sheikh joined WCMC-Q as vice dean for research in April 2007 and was named deputy dean in May the following year. He has served as interim dean since founding dean Daniel R. Alonso retired in Jan. 2009.

Sheikh is a graduate of King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. He began his psychiatry residency training at the 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 anxiety disorders, Sheikh conducted some of the first studies to characterize the effects of aging on anxiety disorders during the 1990s. 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. He has published more than 125 scientific articles, along with numerous research abstracts.

From 2001 to 2006, Sheikh served as associate dean for veterans affairs at Stanford and the chief of medical staff at the Stanford affiliate VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS). As the chairman of the board of Palo Alto Institute for Research and Education, he oversaw the research endeavors of more than 100 Stanford faculty members based at the VAPAHCS. And as research director for the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and clinical director for the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center at VAPAHCS, he oversaw broad-based research programs focusing on the neurobiology of anxiety disorders.

Under Sheikh's leadership as vice dean for research, WCMC-Q has established a translational and clinical research infrastructure, including core laboratories and research administration structure.

Sheikh has recently begun to implement a five-year strategic plan for the next phase of WCMC-Q's development and continuing implementation of its tripartite mission of education, research and clinical care.