American Association for Cancer Research Inaugurates New Leadership at 2019 Annual Meeting

Dr. Elaine R. Mardis inaugurated as President

ATLANTA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) welcomes Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, as President of the organization for 2019-2020. She was inaugurated during the Annual Business Meeting, held here on April 1, during the AACR Annual Meeting 2019.

Mardis holds the Nationwide Foundation Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine and is co-executive director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She also is professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

Mardis is a world-renowned researcher whose work centers on the genomic characterization of cancer and its implications for precision cancer medicine. She has presented keynote addresses and other invited remarks at international conferences on topics including cancer genomics, next-generation sequencing technology, personalized medicine, and cancer immunogenomics.

“I am excited and humbled by my election as President of the AACR, and I am eager to work with Dr. Foti, her amazing staff, and the entire membership to promote basic and translational cancer research toward improved outcomes for cancer patients,” said Mardis.

An active member of the AACR since 2009, Mardis’ contributions to the AACR have been vast and far-reaching. She is currently serving as an AACR Project GENIE Advisory Board member, an AACR Special Conferences committee member, and is a senior editor of the AACR journal Molecular Cancer Research. She previously served on the Board of Directors (2015-2018), as chair of the AACR Annual Meeting 2018 Program Committee, as a committee member for the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR Award (2017), and as a member of the Steering Committee for the AACR Cancer Progress Report 2014. In addition, she was co-chair of the AACR Precision Medicine Series: Integrating Clinical Genomics and Cancer Therapy conference in Salt Lake City, and has served on the organizing committees of several other conferences.

Mardis has received many awards and honors in recognition of her exceptional research accomplishments. She was elected to the 2019 class of Fellows of the AACR Academy, and was the recipient of the Precision Medicine World Congress 2017 Luminary Award, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Morton K. Schwartz Award for Significant Contributions in Cancer Research Diagnostics (2016), the George Engelmann Interdisciplinary Award (2012), St. Louis Academy of Science (2012), and the Scripps Research Institute Translational Medicine Award (2010).

Mardis received a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, and her PhD from the University of Oklahoma. She spent much of her early career at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, as a professor, researcher, and ultimately, co-director of The McDonnell Genome Institute.

Additionally, Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, was inducted as President-Elect. Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, deputy director for the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and associate director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, now serves as past president.