Michael Welsh received his MD and internal medicine training at the University of Iowa, and trained in pulmonary medicine and research at the University of California at San Francisco and the University ofTexas at Houston.

He is the Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, and Neurosurgery. He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1989. Dr. Welsh is director of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Center and the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute.

Dr. Welsh served as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and president of the Association of American Physicians. He received the second annual Distinguished Mentor Award presented by the Carver College of Medicine. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Welsh's clinical activities center on pulmonary diseases. His research focuses on the biology, pathogenesis and treatment of cystic fibrosis. He also investigates the neural underpinnings of how acidic pH affects fear and neurological disease. 

Dr. Welsh has co-founded two companies, Exemplar Genetics and Emmyon, Inc.