Ghazi Zaatari, MD; American University of Beirut, Lebanon

hazi Zaatari, MD, is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the American University of Beirut (AUB), a position he has held since 1995. He is also the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at AUB’s Faculty of Medicine. In December 2024, he began a four-year term as the Secretary of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP), representing over 20,000 pathologists globally. 

Dr. Zaatari is internationally recognized for his leadership in tobacco control and regulation. Since 2008, he has chaired the World Health Organization (WHO) Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg). He also serves as the Director of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Knowledge Hub for Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking. For his contributions to global health and policy, he received the WHO World No Tobacco Day Award in 2020. 

In his clinical and academic work, Dr. Zaatari specializes in anatomic pathology with a focus on the molecular profiling of lung cancer and the health effects of novel tobacco products. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed articles and authored a pathology textbook. Under his leadership, AUB’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine became the first in Lebanon to receive international accreditation. His career also includes previous faculty appointments at Emory University and the Baylor School of Dentistry in the United States.