Fatih M. Uckun, MD, PhD
Elected 1996

Dr. Fatih Uckun is the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Reven Pharmaceuticals and President/Head of Strategy for Clinical Development and Tranlational Hematology-Oncology of AresMIT/Ares Pharmaceuticals.  Dr. Uckun earned his doctoral degrees at University of Heidelberg in Germany and completed his residency training in Pediatrics, fellowship training in Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation, as well as postdoctoral research training in immunology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Uckun has more than 30 years of professional experience in developmental therapeutics and biopharmaceuticals. Dr. Uckun worked as a Professor of Therapeutic Radiology-Radiation Oncology, Pharmacology, and Pediatrics as well as Director of the Biotherapy Institute at the University of Minnesota (1986-1997), where he became the first recipient of the Endowed Hughes Chair in Biotherapy, and as a Professor of Pediatrics and Head of Translational Research in Leukemia and Lymphoma of the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at the University of Southern California (2009-2015). From 2012-2015, Dr. Uckun served as chair of the Biotargeting Working Group and a Member of the Coordination and Governance Committee of the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. Prior to joining Reven, Dr. Uckun served as Head of Immuno-Oncology at Ares Pharmaceuticals and Executive Medical Director and Strategy Lead in Global Oncology and Hematology at Syneos Health. Prior to this, he was Vice President of Research and Clinical Development at Nantkwest, Chief Scientific Officer of Jupiter Research Institute and, before that, held senior-level scientific and research positions at Parker Hughes Institute and its cancer center, Paradigm Pharmaceuticals, and the Children’s Cancer Study Group. He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers and he has authored numerous review articles and book chapters and is an inventor on numerous patents. He received numerous awards including the Stohlman Memorial Award of the Leukemia Society of America (now known as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society/LLS), the highest honor given to a Leukemia Society Scholar. Most recently, he was named the recipient of the 2018 Turkish Academy of Sciences/TUBA Academy Prize in Health and Life Science.  He has served as a member of several editorial boards and NIH grant review/special emphasis panels. Dr. Uckun is a Member of Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA), which is part of the Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia-AASSA.