CNN

Sanjay Gupta

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is the Emmy�-award winning chief medical correspondent for the Health, Medical & Wellness unit at CNN. Gupta, also a practicing neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in the network's lead reporting on breaking medical news, regular health reports for American Morning and Anderson Cooper 360�, anchoring the weekend medical affairs program Sanjay Gupta, MD, and reporting for CNN documentaries. Gupta also contributes to CNN.com and CNNHealth.com, co-hosts �Accent Health� for Turner Private Networks, and writes a column for TIME magazine.

Gupta was among the very first journalists to arrive in Haiti immediately following the massive earthquake and its aftermath in January 2010. He has continued to travel regularly to Haiti to report on breaking news and the ongoing medical capacity challenges faced by the nation. Also in 2010, Gupta has continued to add his depth of practical medical experience and health policy analysis to the unfolding Congressional reform of health care.

In 2009, Gupta led CNN�s coverage of the H1N1 flu from Mexico and CDC headquarters in Atlanta. His reporting included an interview with the small boy who may have been �patient zero,� and added clarity and context to a rapidly evolving global pandemic.

During the 2008 presidential campaign year, Gupta reported extensively on the various health care policy proposals put forward by the candidates, and the documentaries �First Patient� and �Fit to Lead,� investigating the toll that the nation�s highest office takes on the health of the commander-in-chief, and the health of the Presidential candidates, respectively.

In 2006, Gupta contributed to CNN's Peabody Award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, breaking the news that official reports that Charity Hospital in New Orleans had been evacuated were incorrect, and revealing that more than 200 patients remained there for five days after the storm made landfall. The �Charity Hospital� reporting for Anderson Cooper 360� resulted in his 2006 News & Documentary Emmy� for Outstanding Feature Story. In 2004, Gupta was sent to Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami disaster that took more than 155,000 lives in South Asia, contributing to the 2005 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for CNN.

Based in Atlanta, Gupta joined CNN in the summer of 2001 and led CNN�s reporting on anthrax following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City. In 2003, Gupta embedded with the U.S. Navy�s "Devil Docs� medical unit and reported from Iraq and Kuwait from points along the unit's travel to Baghdad. He also provided live coverage from a desert operating room of the first operation performed during the U.S.-led war with Iraq, performing life-saving brain surgery five times himself.

Gupta�s passion for inspiring Americans to lead healthier, more active lives led him to launch "New You Resolution" and later �Fit Nation,� CNN�s multi-platform grassroots anti-obesity initiatives. In 2010, �Fit Nation� follows the progress of Gupta and several CNN viewers as they inspire each other towards better fitness, culminating in triathlon events in New York and Washington, DC.

In addition to his work for CNN, Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine. He is associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital and regularly performs surgery at Emory University and Grady hospitals. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as a diplomat of the American Board of Neurosurgery, is a certified medical investigator, and is a board member of the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Foundation.

Before joining CNN, Gupta served in separate neurosurgical fellowships at the University of Tennessee's Semmes-Murphy clinic and the University of Michigan Medical Center. In 1997, he was selected as a White House Fellow, serving as a special advisor to First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Gupta is also a contributor to the newsmagazine program, �60 Minutes� and to Evening News with Katie Couric on CBS, as well as the author of two best-selling books, Chasing Life (2007) and Cheating Death (2009), both of which became companion documentaries for CNN.

In 2003, Gupta was named one of PEOPLE magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" and a "pop culture icon" by USA Today. That same year he also won the Humanitarian Award from the National Press Photographers Association. In 2004, the Atlanta Press Club named him "Journalist of the Year," and in 2009, he won both the first Health Communications Achievement Award from the American Medical Association�s Medical Communications Conference and the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC).

Gupta received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a doctorate of medicine from the University of Michigan Medical School.