Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D

Founding Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Director, Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Over the past four decades, Dr. Robert Weinberg’s research has been focused on the molecular and biochemical determinants of neoplastic cell transformation. His lab isolated the first human cancer-causing gene, the Ras oncogene, and the first known tumor suppressor gene, Rb, the retinoblastoma gene.

Dr. Weinberg is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among a number of honors and awards, he received Discover Magazine’s 1982 Scientist of the Year, the Sloan Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the Bristol-Myers Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research and the 1997 National Medal of Science.

Dr. Weinberg has written or edited several books including the widely used The Biology of Cancer textbook and published more than 400 articles. His three most recent books include One Renegade Cell, Racing to the Beginning of the Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer and Genes and the Biology of Cancer, the latter co-written with Dr. Harold E. Varmus, former Director of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Weinberg holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in biology from MIT and performed postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.