William G. Kaelin Jr., M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
William G. Kaelin, Jr., M.D., is the Sidney Farber Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He was elected to the Eli Lilly and Company board of directors in 2012.
Kaelin received his degree in medicine from Duke University in 1982 and was a house officer and chief resident in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was a medical oncology clinical fellow at Dana-Farber and a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Livingston, M.D., where he began his studies of tumor suppressor proteins. He became an independent investigator at Dana-Farber in 1992 and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2002. He joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1998.
Kaelin is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the American College of Physicians. He is a Duke University trustee and serves on the Damon-Runyon Cancer Research Foundation board of directors. He previously served on the National Cancer Institute board of scientific advisors, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) board of trustees and the Institute of Medicine National Cancer Policy board.
In 2019, Kaelin won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in understanding how cells sense and adapt to changes in oxygen. He is a recipient of the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences from the Rockefeller University, the Steven C. Beering Award from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the ASCI’s Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award, the Scientific Grand Prix of the Foundation Lefoulon-Delalande, a Canada Gairdner International Award, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Prize from the AACR, a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist award, the Helis Award from Baylor College of Medicine, and the Massry Prize from the Meira and Shaul G. Massry Foundation.
He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020, the Association of American Physicians in 2014, the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and the National Academy of Medicine in 2007.
