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Philip D. Greenberg, MD, FAACR, Elected as American Association for Cancer Research President-Elect for 2022-2023

Five new members elected to the Board of Directors and four new members elected to the Nominating Committee

PHILADELPHIA — The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Philip D. Greenberg, MD, FAACR, as the AACR President-Elect for 2022-2023. He will officially become President-Elect on Monday, April 11, 2022, during the AACR’s Business Meeting of Members, and will assume the Presidency in April 2023 at the next AACR Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Greenberg is the Rona Jaffe Foundation Endowed Chair and professor and head of the Program in Immunology, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. He is also a professor of medicine and immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. An internationally recognized pioneer in the field of cancer immunobiology, Greenberg has made groundbreaking contributions examining host T-cell responses to pathogenic viral infections. His work has led to crucial insights into the understanding of the mechanisms by which T cells distinguish tumor cells from normal cells and has fueled the advancement of adoptive T-cell therapy approaches in various cancers, including leukemia. His research also showed that CD4-positive helper T cells work both collaboratively and independently of CD8-positive cytotoxic T cells to eradicate tumor cells. This work has since been applied to the development of treatments for late-stage melanoma and leukemia.

As AACR President-Elect, Greenberg will work with the Board of Directors and the AACR membership, which includes more than 50,000 members in 129 countries, to further the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research.

“It is my honor and privilege to be afforded this chance to help shape the mission of the AACR during this time of extraordinary opportunities in cancer research,” said Greenberg. “The confluence of advances in many intersecting biologic and technologic fields offers great promise, and it will be a challenge to help harness these advances, enhance access by members of the research community to the new technologies, and translate this progress for the benefit of patients. Disparities in the engagement of minorities in both participation in the research community and the benefits of scientific advances have come to the forefront in recent years, and it will be a critical goal of AACR leadership to develop strategies that help remove these barriers.”

“Dr. Greenberg is an extraordinary physician-scientist whose pioneering research in cancer immunobiology and immunotherapy has contributed significantly to our understanding of the underlying responses of T cells to pathogenic viral infections and tumors. His important work has contributed greatly to improved patient outcomes and cures for certain late-stage melanomas and leukemias, and the advancement of cell therapies as a treatment modality,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “We are deeply grateful for his exemplary service, and the AACR and its members will benefit enormously from his vision, scientific expertise, and commitment to our mission of preventing and curing all cancers. We congratulate him on being elected as the AACR’s 2022-23 President-Elect and 2023-24 President.”

Greenberg has been an AACR member since 2015 and was elected to the Fellows of the AACR Academy in 2019. He previously served on the AACR’s Finance and Audit Committee (2019-2022) and the AACR’s Board of Directors (2017-2020). Greenberg was the vice chair of the Annual Meeting program committee (2019-2020) and a member of the Annual Meeting education committee (2015-2016). Further, he was a member of the AACR’s Continuing Medical Education committee (2014-2017) and member (2015) and co-chair (2016) of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference scientific committee. From 2012 to 2014, he was a member of the AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology selection committee. Greenberg is also a member of the AACR’s Cancer Immunology Working Group.

Greenberg serves as co-editor-in-chief of the AACR journal Cancer Immunology Research, where he was previously senior editor (2012-2015). From 1994-1997, Greenberg served on the editorial board for the AACR journal Clinical Cancer Research. He was also a member of the steering committee for the 2017 edition of the AACR Cancer Progress Report

Greenberg was a member of the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)-Cancer Research Institute Cancer Immunology Dream Team and is currently a member of the SU2C-Lustgarten Foundation (LF) Pancreatic Cancer Dream Team. He was a reviewer of the SU2C-LF CAR T Research Team (2017-2020), the SU2C-Farrah Fawcett Foundation Human Papillomavirus Research Team (2016-2020), and the SU2C-LF Pancreatic Cancer Research Team (2014-2017). The AACR is the Scientific Partner of Stand Up To Cancer.

Greenberg has received numerous honors and awards throughout his remarkable career, including the Precision Medicine World Conference Luminary Award (2020), American Society of Hematology E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize (2019), Seattle Business Magazine Gold Award as Leader in Health Care for Achievements in Medical Research (2018), Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Richard Smalley Memorial Award (2018), Cancer Research Institute’s William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology (2011), International Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Team Science Award for Career Achievements (2010), and the NIH MERIT Award (1991-1997, and 1997-2007). In addition to being a Fellow of the AACR Academy, Greenberg was elected to the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Inaugural Class of Fellows of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology (2021) and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists (2019), Fellow of the American College of Physicians (2008), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007), and elected Member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Greenberg received his doctoral degree from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center in 1971. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, San Diego from 1974 to 1976, and a senior fellow in the Division of Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from 1976 to 1978.

Newly elected members of the AACR Board of Directors and AACR Nominating Committee

The AACR Board of Directors and Nominating Committee consist of world-renowned leaders in the field of cancer research. The following five cancer researchers have been elected to the Board of Directors for the 2022–2025 term:

John D. Carpten, PhD, FAACR, is professor and chair for the Department of Translational Genomics, and is the Royce and Mary Trotter Chair in Cancer Research, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC). He also serves as associate director of basic sciences for the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Christina Curtis, PhD, is associate professor of medicine and genetics and an Endowed Scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine; director of Breast Cancer Translational Research and codirector of the Molecular Tumor Board at the Stanford Cancer Institute; and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator at Stanford.

William Pao, MD, PhD, is chief development officer and executive vice president at Pfizer.

Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, is professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; Ted Williams Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI); vice chair for pediatric oncology research, codirector of the Pediatric Hematologic Malignancy Program, and pediatric oncologist at DFCI and Boston Children’s Hospital; and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, is director of the Abramson Cancer Center and vice dean and vice president of cancer programs for the Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

In addition, the following four scientists were elected to the Nominating Committee:

Susan M. Domchek, MD, is executive director, Basser Center for BRCA, and Basser Professor in Oncology, Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania.

Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, FAACR, is co-executive director of The Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine and The Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Nationwide Foundation endowed chair in genomic medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital; and professor of pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She served as AACR President in 2019-2020.

Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, FAACR, is professor of medicine, surgery, and molecular and medical pharmacology; director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center; and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He served as AACR President in 2020-2021.

Sheila A. Stewart, PhD, is vice chair and Gerty T. Cori Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology and professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Molecular Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine; codirector, Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, and associate director for basic science, The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.