Cancer genetics pioneer wins Margaret L. Kripke Legend Award
Janet Davison Rowley, M.D., a trailblazing researcher on the role of genetic variation in cancer, mentor of young scientists and role model for the possibilities of work-life balance, is the 2010 winner of MD Anderson’s Margaret L. Kripke Legend Award. The award was funded by Polo on the Prairie and the Vivian L. Smith Foundation.
Rowley is the Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago.
“Janet Rowley has transformed the fields of cancer and cytogenetics, and, as a result, the field of molecular oncology,” says Elizabeth Travis, Ph.D., associate vice president of MD Anderson’s Women Faculty Programs, which sponsors the Kripke Legend Award.
Rowley’s research laid the foundation for personalized cancer care and targeted therapy, the primary focus of cancer research today.
The award was established in honor of Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D., a professor emerita at MD Anderson, whose leadership earned her appointment to the three-person President’s Cancer Panel. Kripke was the first woman to chair a department at MD Anderson and the first to advance to senior vice president and chief academic officer, and then to executive vice president and chief academic officer.
