John Mendelsohn (doctor)
John Mendelsohn (August 31, 1936 – January 7, 2019) was a president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was an internationally recognized leader in cancer research. Mendelsohn served as MD Anderson president from 1996 to 2011. When Ronald DePinho became president, he stepped down September 1, 2011. Mendelsohn remained on the faculty as co-director of the new Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy. Also, he was a senior fellow in health and technology at the Baker Institute. Mendelsohn was only the third full-time president of MD Anderson. When he arrived, Mendelsohn's focus shifted from his expertise in laboratory research and clinical trials to leading an institution that employs about 18,000 people and serves 100,000 patients yearly, with a budget of more than $3.3 billion. Background Mendelsohn earned his bachelor's degree in sciences magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1958. He was the first undergraduate student of James D. Watson, who later won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying the structure of DNA. After spending a year in Scotland as a Fulbright Scholar in biochemistry, Mendelsohn received his medical degree cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1963.