Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science

Rakesh Jain

Accomplished scholar, you earned a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware. 

After serving on the faculty at Columbia University and Carnegie Mellon University, you joined Harvard Medical School as the Andrew Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology, a position you hold today. You are also the long-time director of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

You have mentored more than 225 graduate and postdoctoral students, and you have collaborated with hundreds of scientists and physicians across multiple specialties. 

Pioneering researcher, for four decades, your laboratory has focused on one challenge: Improving the delivery and efficacy of anti-cancer therapeutics by normalizing the tumor microbiology. That work has led to new thinking about cancer treatment and to FDA approvals for therapies helping people with a variety of cancers. Your research also led to the development of new treatments for a number of non-malignant diseases, including tuberculosis and neurofibromatosis.

Your multidisciplinary laboratory is exploring new strategies to detect cancers, to tailor therapies to individuals, to make treatments more effective, and to improve patient survival rates.

World-renowned expert, you have shared your knowledge and expertise through lectures, presentations and keynote speeches at universities, medical schools, hospitals, cancer institutes, corporations and conferences across the United States and around the world.

You have the distinction of being one of few people who are members of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. You are also a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research.

In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded you the National Medal of Science for your “pioneering research at the interface of engineering and oncology” and “for discovering groundbreaking principles guiding the development and novel use of drugs for cancer and noncancerous diseases.” 

Your life’s work has advanced healthcare, improved medical outcomes and saved lives.Therefore, under the authority of the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware, I have the pleasure and honor of conferring upon you, Dr. Rakesh Jain, the degree of Doctor of Science and do declare you entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges to that degree appertaining throughout the world.

Terri L. Kelly
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
May 2023