Dr. Richard T. Silver, clinical professor of medicine at Weill Medical Col-lege of Cornell University and medical director of the Cancer Research & Treatment Fund, has received the first Timothy Gee Award, established to recognize all-around excellence in hematology/oncology.
Dr. Silver received the award on May 19 at the annual dinner of the Sass Foundation for Cancer Research, which co-sponsors the award with the Lauri Strauss Leukemia Foundation. Dr. Silver was cited for his exceptional qualities as a clinician, his compassion for his patients, his role as teacher and mentor to generations of residents and fellows, and his major contribu-tions as clinical investigator in advancing understanding and treatment of chronic leukemias.
The award honors the memory of the late Dr. Timothy Gee, who died in November 1999 after a distinguished career in hematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and St. Vincentís Hospital and Medical Center in New York City.
A 1953 graduate of Cornell University Medical College, Dr. Silver has been a member of the Cornell faculty since 1956. In 1958, only five years out of medical school, he was one of the authors of a groundbreaking paper report-ing the first significant success in achieving remissions in acute leukemia. Recently, hundreds of research articles and thousands of patients later, he has continued to break ground as a principal investigator in the international trial of the new drug Gleevec, which has shown unprecedented effective-ness against chronic myeloid leukemia.
In recognition of his achievements, Weill Medical College, in conjunction with the Cancer Research & Treatment Fund, established last year the Rich-ard T. Silver Distinguished Professorship of Hematology and Medical On-cology, an endowed position that will help assure the collegeís continued eminence in clinical cancer research well into the future.
For additional information, please contact:
Keith Muhleman, CR&T.
Phone: 212-288-6604
Fax: 212-288-7704 or 212-746-8246
e-mail: kmuhleman@crt.org
