Cancer Biology & Therapy Editor-in-Chief, Wafik S El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, inducted into the Society of Scholars of the Johns Hopkins University on April 7, 2014

Cancer Biology & Therapy editor-in-Chief wafik s el-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, was inducted in the society of scholars of the Johns Hopkins University on Monday, April 7, 2014 during events in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr el-Deiry is one of 16 inductees selected for this honor in 2014 (Fig. 1). Inductees were honored at the Johns Hopkins University school of Medicine as well as with a reception and induction ceremony at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. The evening culminated with a reception and dinner at the George Peabody Library. The society of scholars was created on the recommendation of then-University President Milton s eisenhower and approved by the university board of trustees on May 1, 1967. The society—the first of its kind in the nation—inducts former postdoctoral fellows, postdoctoral degree recipients, house staff, and junior or visiting faculty who have served at least a year at Johns Hopkins, and thereafter gained marked distinction elsewhere in their fields and for whom at least five years have elapsed since ending their service at Johns Hopkins. The Committee of the Johns Hopkins society of scholars, whose members are equally distributed among the academic divisions, elects a limited number of candidates each year from nominations by the academic divisions having postdoctoral programs. The scholars are presented with a certificate and a medallion (Fig. 2) on a black and gold ribbon at an annual induction ceremony. There are currently 611 members in the Johns Hopkins society of scholars. Dr el-Deiry (Fig. 3) is the Rose Dunlap Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Hematology/Oncology Division at Penn state University’s Milton s. Hershey Medical Center and the Penn state College of Medicine, Associate Director for Translational Research and Program Leader of experimental Therapeutics at the Penn state Hershey Cancer Institute. Dr el-Deiry is one of 40 active American Cancer society Research Professors. In 2013–2014 he served as the Interim Director at the Penn state Cancer Center. Dr el-Deiry earned his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Miami school of Medicine and completed internal medicine residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and then completed oncology fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in Baltimore. while at Johns Hopkins, he discovered p21(wAF1) as a p53 target gene, universal cell cycle inhibitor and tumor suppressor gene that for the first time explained the mammalian cell stress response. This is the most highly cited original work published in the journal Cell over the past 20 years. This work elucidated for the first time how mammalian cells arrest the cell cycle in response to DNA damaging signals such as chemotherapy or radiation. Dr el-Deiry joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania school of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Medicine and Genetics in 1994, Associate Professor with tenure in 1999 and rose to full Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Genetics with tenure by 2005. He was an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1995 to 2004. He served as co-Program Leader of the Radiobiology and Imaging Program at the Abramson Comprehensive Cancer Center and as Associate Director for Physicianscientist Training in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. He made several discoveries in the field of cell death and tumor suppressor genes including discovery of TRAIL death receptor DR5 as a target of Figure 1. Photo of new members of the Johns Hopkins University society of scholars taken on April 7, 2014 at the Induction Ceremony, Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. Dr el-Deiry is third from the right in second row.