David S. Alberts

David S. Alberts, M.D., is Director Emeritus of the University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC), and Regents Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology, Public Health and Nutritional Sciences. After training in hematology and oncology and clinical pharmacology, respectively, at the National Cancer Institute and the University of California-San Francisco Cancer Center, Dr. Alberts moved to the UACC, where he served as Leader of the Therapeutic Development Program from 1978 to 1989, of the Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Program from 1989 to 2005, and Director of the UACC from 2005-2013. In 1994, he initiated and still chairs the CPC Committee in the Gynecologic Oncology Group (now in the NRG). Between 1982 and 1984, Dr. Alberts served as the Chair of the Oncologic Advisory Committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and between 1999 and 2006 he served on the Board of Scientific Advisors to the National Cancer Institute. He is the recipient of the Joseph Burchenal Clinical Research Award (2003), the Cancer Prevention award from the American Association for Cancer Research (2004), and the Distinguished Career Award for Cancer Prevention from the American Society of Prevention Oncology (2004) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (1999). In 2014, the American Association for Cancer Research gave him its first Pioneer Award in Cancer Prevention Research. He served as a member of the Coordinating Committee for the Clinical Translational Trials Advisory Committee (CTAC) to the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnostics at the National Cancer Institute between 2006 and 2009. Dr. Alberts has been funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) since 1975 for laboratory and clinical research related to the clinical pharmacology of cancer chemotherapy and chemopreventive agents. In June 2001, he was rated by Science as the third-highest funded clinical research scientist in the U.S. by the National Institutes of Health. He has authored more than 540 peer-reviewed publications, more than 100 book chapters and 60 invited publications, and has served as editor of 8 books. Dr. Alberts has served as a mentor for 11 doctoral and 11 Master’s degree candidates, as well as primary mentor for 17 postdoctoral fellows. He has recognized ability as a teacher and mentor and understands the learning process for advanced trainees. He successfully directed a CPC T32 Program between 1996 and 2001, at which time it was merged with the R25T CPC Program. Presently, Dr. Alberts serves as the Contact Principal Investigator for the NCI-funded Native American Cancer Prevention U54 grant that has trained over 350 Native American undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University to be research scientists (2003-present). This grant was recently funded again through 2019. He also serves as the Contact Principal Investigator for a Skin Cancer Prevention Program Project grant that he initiated in 1989 and has contributed to the commercialization of two molecularly targeted agents with unique health promotion effects on sun damaged skin.