UT Austin Hires Top Cancer Researcher

The University of Texas at Austin received a $6 million recruitment grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas which has allowed it to hire Thomas Yankeelov, a distinguished cancer researcher.

Yankeelov will join UT Austin on Jan. 1, 2016 and he will assume a dual appointment in the Cockrell School of Engineering and the Dell Medical School. Yankeelov’s clinical research is aimed at improving patient care by employing advanced imaging methods for the early identification, assessment and prediction of tumors and their response to therapy. He previously worked at Vanderbilt University where he served as the Ingram Professor of Cancer Research; professor of radiology and radiological sciences, physics, biomedical engineering and cancer biology; and director of cancer imaging research and co-leader of the Host-Tumor Interactions Research Program for the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center..

“There are tremendous opportunities at the intersection of medicine and engineering to develop new tools that will help save lives. Dr. Yankeelov will help UT Austin lead those efforts,” President Gregory L. Fenves said in a news release. “We continually strive to bring the best minds to Texas to collaborate on world changing research. This grant from CPRIT allows us to do just that.”