Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center names executive VP

Bruce Clurman, MD, has been appointed executive vice president and deputy director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Clurman led the coordination and planning of the institution’s integrated research centers, designed to unite clinicians and scientists from diverse focus areas to address significant problems related to cancer and other disease.

“We recognize that we need to have more team-oriented science to address some of the biggest problems in the biology and therapy of human disease,” Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD, president and director of Fred Hutch, said in a press release. “I don’t think there’s anybody who we could bring in, either internally or externally, that can do what Bruce is able to do, because of the history that he has here and the scientific credibility that he has. He’s respected across all of our different, very broadly-based disciplines of science.”

Churman, a transplantation physician who has been with Fred Hutch for 25 years, will succeed Mark Groudine, MD, PhD, who served as executive vice president for 11 years and deputy director for 19 years. Groudine will continue to lead his basic research laboratory.

“As I started thinking about ways to extend myself beyond my own work, it was just natural for me to want to put that effort and energy here, because I couldn’t imagine wanting to work like this anywhere else,” Clurman said in the press release. “Gary has an incredibly bold vision which I’m completely aligned with, and I think that people are really behind, but while we want to continue to support fundamental science, we also need to change the way we do some of our work to accomplish that. The opportunities are unprecedented, but there’s also an urgency to accelerate our progress.”