Dr. Rakesh K. Jain is the Andrew Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology (Tumor Biology) at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is widely known for uncovering how the a normal tumor microenvironment fuels tumor progression and confers resistance to molecular-, nano-, and immuno-therapeutics; developing innovative strategies to “normalize” the microenvironment; and then translating these strategies from bench to bedside. He has mentored more than 240 doctoral and postdoctoral students and authored of more than 820 publications– that have been cited more than 270,000 times (GoogleScholar). He is among the top 1% cited researchers since 2014. A recipient of more than 90 awards, Dr. Jain has the rare distinction of being a member of all three US National Academies –– National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine– as well as the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the 2025 AACR Lifetime Achievement on Cancer Research Award, and the 2013 US National Medal of Science (for biological sciences) from President Obama “For pioneering research at the interface of engineering and oncology, including tumor microenvironment, drug delivery, and imaging; and
for discovering groundbreaking principles guiding the development and novel use of drugs for cancer and non-cancerous diseases.