Pioneering Cancer Researcher Dr. Harold “Hal” Moses, MD’62, to Receive Vanderbilt’s Highest Alumni Award
Moses, the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and acting chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University, has been chosen to receive the highest honor conferred on members of the Vanderbilt alumni community: the Distinguished Alumni Award. Moses is a world-renowned scholar in cancer biology and a highly acclaimed international lecturer.
Currently a professor of cancer biology, medicine, and of pathology, microbiology and immunology, Moses was founding director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and now serves as its director, emeritus. He is also the founding and current director of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at VICC.
“I’ve done a lot in terms of administration,” says Moses, “but my real love has always been my research program.”
Much of his research has involved cellular activity and growth in breast cancer. He has dedicated three decades to solving the riddles of protein TGF-ß—transforming growth factor-beta—in hopes of finding new ways to treat cancer. The crucial discoveries of his research team have served as building blocks for other cancer scientists.
“Dr. Moses is a true gem among the many accomplished alumni in the Vanderbilt community,” says Carroll Kimball, BA’84, president of the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association. “His work brings hope to all who know someone who has suffered from cancer.”
Moses’ interest in cancer biology was born during his early career at Vanderbilt. The son of a Kentucky coal miner, he graduated from Berea College in Kentucky before enrolling at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. After postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, Moses returned to Vanderbilt in 1968 as a faculty member in the Department of Pathology. The heavy clinical load, however, soon motivated him to head to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to concentrate on research. There he served as chair of the Department of Cell Biology for six years before returning to Vanderbilt in 1985.
Moses has served as president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes, co-chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Progress Review Group, and chair of the NCI Cancer Centers Review Panel. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, where he was founding chair of the National Cancer Policy Forum.
His achievements have been recognized with the 2013 American Association of Cancer Research Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research, the Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research at Vanderbilt, and the T.J. Martell Foundation Lifetime Achievement Medical Research Award.
“Dr. Moses’ renowned work in cancer research has helped arm the fight against that deadly disease,” says Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “I am particularly proud that he has made these contributions as both a Vanderbilt alumnus and faculty member.”
The Distinguished Alumni Award, established in 1996 by Vanderbilt’s Alumni Association, recognizes an alumnus or alumna whose accomplishments and contributions have had the broadest impact and most positive effect on humankind. Recipients of the award are celebrated for going beyond their successful vocations to benefit the universal community.
Moses, who lives in Nashville with his wife, Linda, will officially receive the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award during a ceremony later this year.