Douglas Lowy, M.D., has been named the National Cancer Institute’s acting director. NCI is one of the 27 institutes and centers that comprise the NIH. Lowy has worked as NCI’s deputy director since July 2010, helping lead NCI’s key scientific initiatives since that time.

Lowy, a cancer researcher for more than 40 years, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in 2014 for his research that led to the development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. As chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology in the Center for Cancer Research at NCI, Lowy’s research includes the biology of papillomaviruses and the regulation of normal and neoplastic growth. His laboratory, in close collaboration with John T. Schiller, Ph.D., was involved in the initial development, characterization and clinical testing of the preventive virus-like particle-based HPV vaccines that now are used in the three FDA-approved HPV vaccines.

Dr. Lowy is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), as well as the Institute of Medicine of the NAS.