2005 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal Recipient

President of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center since July 1996, Dr. Mendelsohn has led the center in a period of phenomenal growth during which it has been named the nation’s top cancer hospital in four of the past five years by U.S. News & World Report. Born in Cincinnati, Dr. Mendelsohn earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1958. He spent a year in Scotland as a Fulbright fellow before receiving his medical degree cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1963. He was founding director of the Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, and chairman of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for 11 years. For three decades, Dr. Mendelsohn has been at the forefront in demonstrating how growth factors regulate the proliferation of cancer cells by activating receptors on cell surfaces. He led translational research that developed a specific monoclonal antibody (cetuximab, Erbitux™) to block the receptor for epidermal growth factor. Erbitux™ was approved last year by the FDA as a new treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. He was founding editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research and has written more than 300 scientific articles and chapters based on his research.