Degrees and Titles
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor.
Doctoral dissertation on “Justus Christian Loder and His Medical Institutions in Russia” (Justus Christian von Loder’s Krankenanstalten in Russland) at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Free University of Berlin under Professor Heinz Müller-Dietz.

Academic Career
After successfully defending his dissertation in 1991 and receiving the degree of doctor of medical sciences at the Free University of Berlin he continued his work at the P. Stradins Museum for History of Medicine in Riga as deputy director of research. At the same time, worked in the field of science pedagogy at the Institute of Medical History at the Riga Medical Institute (currently Riga Stradins University), occupying the positions of lecturer (1993), docent (1998), associate professor (1999), professor (2005, 2011). Since 1998 he has been the director of the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Riga Stradins University.

Honorary Titles, Awards, Prizes
Paul Stradins Prize (2001).
The Latvian Society of Museums Zelta Puteklis Prize for Exhibition of the Year (2014).

Academic Interests
History of Russian-German medical ties, history of the pharmaceutical industry in Russia and the Balitcs in the first half of the 20th century, medical museology, issues of medical ethics and corruption in medicine.

Professional Organizations
Member of the European Association for the History of the Museum of Medical Sciences.
Member of the board of the Baltic Association of the History of Science.
Member of the Russian Society of Historians of Medicine.
Member of the Russian Ministry of Health’s Council for the Development of Medical History Museums.
Editor (together with Academician Y. Stradins) of Acta Medico-Historica Rigensia, an international, peer-reviewed publication of history of medicine articles formerly known as From the History of Medicine.

Publications
Author of over 80 works, including 3 monographs.
Salaks J. Emergence and Development of the Pauls Stradins Museum of the History of Medicine in Riga. Medicina nei Secoli. Rome. 2009. Vol. 21. No 1. pp. 215-243. 

Salaks J. The marketing of medications in Post-Soviet Latvia. Michael, Publication series of the Norwegian Medical Society, Oslo, 2011, vol. 8., no. 2., p. 258.—269.

Salaks J. Exhibition Dedicated to the Bicentenary of Professor Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (1810–1881) in the Pauls Stradins Museum of the History of Medicine in Riga. Baltic Journal of European Studies, Tallinn, 2011, vol. 1, no. 1(9), p. 402-406. Sk.: http://www.ies.ee/iesp/No9/iesp_no9.pdf   

Salaks J. “Doctors: organisers of museums”. Historiae Scientiarum Baltica 2014. Abstracts of the XXVI International Baltic Conference on the History of Science. Helsinki. 2014. p.45-46.

Salaks Yuris. Radi obshchego dela (For the Sake of a Common Cause). Muzey №10, 2014. P. 60-61. [in Russian]

Pashkov K.A., Salaks Yu.M. Budet li v Rossii Tsentral’nyy muzey meditsiny? (Will there be a Central Museum of Medicine in Russia?). Al’manakh istorii meditsiny: neizvestnye i spornye stranitsy. Moskow. 2014. P. 381-388. [in Russian]

Salaks J. The Ilya Mechnikov Collection in Riga. History of Allergy. Chem Immunol Allergy. Basel, Karger. 2014. Vol. 100, pp. 405–408.