Richard Pestell

Richard Pestell began his medical journey at the University of Western Australia, where he graduated at the top of his class and earned an M.B., B.S., guided by a sense of the potential of medicine to transform lives. His early training included years as a physician-in-training at Royal Perth Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, where he gained experience in Internal Medicine and residency. His clinical exposure included oncology, endocrinology, hematology, cardiology, and transplant medicine, which supported a long-term interest in improving patient care through science that elucidates mechanisms of disease. He pursued deeper training in cancer biology through advanced research, culminating in a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne at the Howard Florey Institute, with a focus on oncogene regulation of gene transcription. National scholarships and multiple competitive fellowships, including a Winthrop Fellowship and an NHMRC postgraduate award, supported his academic progress. These opportunities led to Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he trained further as a clinical and research fellow. Richard continued his academic career at Northwestern University and then at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He became a Professor, Chair of the Division of Endocrine Dependent Tumor Biology, and Co-Director of major cancer research programs. He also held roles at multiple hospitals in New York, which helped him stay connected to patient care and medical education while building research programs that consistently deliver impactful advances. Richard Pestell contributed research that helped shape modern cancer therapeutics. His work on cyclin D1 was cited in seminal publications underpinning CDK inhibitor clinical trials and their adoption as a standard therapy for breast cancer globally. Share hope. Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible—every day.