John Pham

John W. Pham is an American molecular biologist and editor-in-chief of Cell.

Pham was born in the U.S. a few weeks after his parents and older siblings arrived as refugees from Vietnam. He was raised in Florida. Pham earned a B.S. in music and biochemistry from Bates College. He completed a Ph.D. at Northwestern University under advisor Erik Sontheimer. He researched the mechanismis of RNA splicing and RNA interference. His 2006 dissertation was titled Building the Drosophila RNA-induced silencing complex. Pham completed postdoctural studies at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Pham joined Cell Press in 2008 as a member of Molecular Cell's editorial team. He became the editor-in-chief of Molecular Cell in 2012. In 2018, Pham succeeded Cell editor-in-chief Emilie Marcus who had departed in February 2018. In June 2019, Pham was speaker at an Elsevier Pride and 500 Queer Scientist organized event at WorldPride NYC 2019.

Pham is a member of the LGBT community. As of July 2018, Pham resides in Dorchester, Boston with his partner, Mike, and their two dogs.