by Tom Wilemon

Jordan Berlin, MD, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, has been named director of Vanderbilt’s Division of Hematology and Oncology.

The appointment was effective, Jan. 1, but Berlin had served as interim director for six months prior to that date.

“Dr. Berlin has all the qualifications — superb investigator, excellent mentor, outstanding physician. Plus, I don’t know anyone who cares more about the division and its people than him. I am excited to see where the division goes in the coming years under his leadership. There is so much going on in Hematology and Oncology, and this division is poised to lead changes that impact outcomes nationally,” said Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, Hugh Jackson Morgan Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine.

Berlin, who joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 1999, is associate director for Clinical Research at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and co-director of the administrative core for the Gastrointestinal SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) grant from the National Cancer Institute.

“Dr. Berlin has done an outstanding job as interim director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, and I’m excited that he has agreed to accept this position,” said Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Chair in Oncology and director of Vanderbilt-Ingram. “He is admired by his colleagues here, highly respected by other oncologists nationally and internationally, and a proven leader.”

Berlin has practiced medicine for three decades and has specialized in treating patients with gastrointestinal cancers with particular interest in pancreatic cancer. He has advanced cancer care by leading numerous clinical trials, authoring research studies in prestigious medical journals and, most importantly, mentoring physicians in their careers.

Berlin completed medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine followed by a residency in internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati Hospital and fellowship training in hematology and oncology at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

He came to VUMC in 1999 to lead the GI Cancer Research Program.  He is the associate director for Clinical Research at VICC and leads phase 1 research. He is also the principal investigator on the VICC UM1 to conduct early phase trials within the National Cancer Institute’s Early Phase Clinical Trials Network and helps to co-lead the VICC GI SPORE.

“I am honored and humbled to have been given this opportunity by Dr. Rathmell and VUMC.  The Division of Hematology and Oncology is about the people: the people we teach, the people we care for and the people who do the research that will continue to change the outcomes for our patients for the better, and I can’t ask for a better group of people to lead,” Berlin said.