Duane Compton

Duane Compton serves as Dean of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where he is also the Senior Associate Dean for Research and a Professor of Biochemistry.

Dr. Compton received his PhD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1988 and completed his postdoctoral training in the field of cell biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was recruited to the faculty at Dartmouth in 1993, and is a leader in graduate and medical student education and a distinguished National Institutes of Health-funded researcher.

In his research program, Dr. Compton focuses on understanding how cancer cells acquire abnormal chromosome numbers and how those alterations influence cancer cell growth. He has published more than 70 articles, and images of his work have been displayed on the cover of 15 different journals. He serves on national committees with the American Society for Cell Biology and American Association of Medical Colleges and reviews grant applications for the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2013 he earned a MERIT award from the NIH to provide long-term support for his research program.

Dr. Compton is committed to graduate and medical education. He has graduated 14 PhD students and has served on committees for more than 50 graduate students. He received the Graduate Faculty Mentor Award in 2007. He spent six years as Biochemistry course director for the first year medical student curriculum and received the Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2004. He was a member of the inaugural class of faculty elected to the Geisel Academy of Master Faculty Educators in 2012. Dr. Compton is an avid snowboarder who lives with his wife in Lyme, NH.