Sanjiv Chopra

Sanjiv Chopra was born in India. Influenced by his physician father and a life-changing experience at age 12 — when he feared he had gone blind, only to recover with the help of his father’s medical expertise — he pursued medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. His older brother, spiritual leader and author Deepak Chopra, also became a doctor. Following Deepak, who relocated in 1970, Sanjiv moved to the United States in 1972 for medical residency and fellowship training, first to New Jersey and then Boston.

Chopra is now a professor of medicine and former faculty dean for continuing medical education at Harvard Medical School, where he has been on faculty for more than four decades. Chopra also serves as a Marshall Wolf Distinguished Clinician Educator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the James Tullis Firm Chief of the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  

“Immigrants grab on to the ladder of success at different rungs,” the Chopra brothers wrote in USA Today, reflecting on their immigration journey and the need for better pathways for legal immigration. “Immigration is economically, culturally and spiritually enriching for America.”

Chopra is a highly regarded inspirational speaker and the author of numerous books on health and longevity, as well as coauthor of a memoir with his brother, Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny and the American Dream. Chopra has received many honors, including the 2012 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and was elected a Master of the American College of Physicians in 2009. He is also an elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Published June 2026