Kenneth H. Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., became the director of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center (formerly the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center) and the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases in August 1999. The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, created in 1983, is an NCI-designated clinical cancer center, uniting cancer researchers throughout the UNMC campus into a larger single entity. The Eppley Institute was founded in 1961. Dr. Cowan is the sixth director in the institute’s 40 year history. The Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases is a division of the University of Nebraska Medical Center with 27 basic science laboratories headed by principal investigators focused on cancer research.
Prior to this, since completing his residency training at Texas Southwestern Affiliated Hospitals in Dallas, Dr. Cowan spent 21 years in the Public Health Service at the National Cancer Institute. Since 1988, he served as Chief of the Medical Breast Cancer Section, Medicine Branch. In his NCI position, he was responsible for overseeing laboratory researchers and clinical staff involved in basic and clinical research in breast cancer.
A New York City native, Dr. Cowan earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, and his medical and doctorate degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He has authored more than 240 papers for scientific journals and has been an invited guest lecturer at numerous scientific conferences.
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