President and chief executive officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for the past 16 years, Edward Benz Jr., MD, has overseen the institute’s growth into an internationally recognized center for top-flight patient care and cutting-edge cancer research.
Dr. Benz also serves as chief executive officer of Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare and director of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and is a trustee of Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Care. The institute’s longest-serving chief executive, Dr. Benz will step down in June and serve on an interim basis until January 2017.
During Dr. Benz’s tenure, the number of patients seeking treatment at Dana-Farber has tripled and its medical staff has earned a world-class reputation for translational research leading to significant improvements in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. A hematologist and leukemia expert, Dr. Benz will continue his research into the molecular basis and genetics of inherited blood disorders, as well as remain the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine and professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
An associate editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Benz has authored more than 300 articles, books, chapters, reviews and abstracts, and has co-edited several standard medical texts, including Hematology: Basic Principles and Practices. He has served as president of the American Society of Hematology, the Association of American Cancer Institutes, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Clinical and Climatological Society.
Prior to assuming the presidency of Dana-Farber, Dr. Benz was chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Sir William Osler Professor of Medicine.
