The Honorable John Edward Porter

Research!America Chair

John Edward Porter is a partner in the Washington law firm of Hogan Lovells.  He served 21 years as U.S. Congressman from the 10th district in Illinois, where he served on the Appropriations committee, and as chair of the subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Under his subcommittee's jurisdiction were all the health programs and agencies (including NIH and CDC, but excepting FDA) and all of the education programs and agencies of the federal government.

He was founder and Co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, a voluntary association of more than 250 members of Congress working to identify, monitor, and end human rights violations worldwide. He authored the legislation creating Radio Free Asia and served as Chair of the Global Legislators Organized for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE USA).

He chairs Research!America and is vice-chair of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the Boards of the PBS Foundation and the Chicago Botanic Garden. Porter is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Inter-American Dialogue and Council on Foreign Relations. Previously he served on boards of The Bookings Institution, the RAND Corporation, the American Heart Association, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Among over 275 awards for his service in Congress is the Mary Wood Lasker Award for Public Service.

Before his election to Congress, Porter served in the Illinois House of Representatives and prior to that as an Honor Law Graduate Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in the Kennedy Administration. He attended M.I.T., and is a graduate of Northwestern University, and, with distinction, of the University of Michigan Law School. Porter has nine honorary degrees.