Yusuf A. Hannun, MD, is the Director of the Stony Brook University Cancer Center, Vice Dean for Cancer Medicine, and the Joel Strum Kenny Professor in Cancer Research. Dr. Hannun is an internationally known researcher in the area of lipids, protein kinases, and signal transduction. His novel contributions to science in the field of lipid biology have opened up a new field of investigation centered on the study of sphingolipids and their roles in cancer biology, inflammation, and cancer therapeutics. Dr. Hannun has published approximately 500 scientific manuscripts, edited 7 books, and authored 7 patents. He has received numerous national scientific and professional honors, including election as a fellow to the AAAS, election to the AAP and ASCI, the Malinckrodt Scholarship, and the Pew Scholarship in Biomedical Sciences. He currently holds multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health. He is also the principal investigator on a 10-year program project grant from the National Cancer Institute.