Wilson M. Compton, M.D., M.P.E. is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on health aspects of drug abuse and addiction related to preventing drug abuse, treating addiction and addressing serious health consequences of drug abuse, including related HIV/AIDS and other conditions. Dr. Compton received his undergraduate education at Amherst College and his medical education at Washington University in St. Louis. Over his 25 year career, Dr. Compton has achieved multiple scientific accomplishments. He is author of more than 150 articles, including widely cited papers on the opioid crisis; is an invited speaker at multiple high-impact venues, and is the leader or collaborator on multiple high-impact projects. Of note, he was a member of the DSM-5 Revision Task Force and member of the DSM5 Substance Related Disorder workgroup, and he led the development of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, a large scale longitudinal population study with 45,971 study subjects ages 12 and older that assesses the impact of new tobacco regulations in the United States. Over his career, Dr. Compton has received multiple awards, including the American Psychiatric Association’s Senior Scholar Health Services Research Award in 2008, the Health and Human Services Secretary’s Awards for Meritorious Service in 2013 and Distinguished Service in 2014, and an FDA Cross-Cutting Award in 2017.
