Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, has been elected president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for 2016-17.
Founded in 1907, the AACR is the world’s first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and to preventing and curing cancer. This is the first time in the 109-year history of the AACR that a person from Ohio State has been elected as president.
Caligiuri assumed his post as president-elect at the 2016 AACR Annual Meeting, April 16-20. He will assume the presidency in April 2017.
In these roles, he will work with the association’s board of directors and its more than 35,000 individuals from 104 countries to further its mission to prevent and cure cancer through research, education, communication and collaboration.
Caligiuri’s election to this position is a reflection of his international reputation as a cancer researcher, administrator and educator who has led the OSUCCC – James to global prominence.
Along with serving as director of the OSUCCC since 2003 and as CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute since 2008, he is a physician-scientist who is well known for his work on the biology of human natural-killer cells and their use for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and other cancers. To date, more than 1,500 cancer patients have been treated on clinical protocols that have emanated from the Caligiuri laboratory.
Caligiuri has been involved with the AACR since 1990. He has served as chairperson of the Publications Committee since 1993 and as a member of the Clinical and Translational Cancer Research Committee, among other roles. He was elected by the membership to the AACR board of directors, serving from 2013 to 2016, and he was a member of the faculty for the Scientist Survivor Program at the AACR Annual Meeting from 2003 to 2009. He was also a member of the faculty for the educational workshop, Methods in Clinical Cancer Research, from 2003 to 2007.