Distinguished Scientist Award
Recognizing Scientific Excellence
Selected by the AACI Board of Directors from a slate of candidates nominated by AACI members, the awardee should be widely known in the cancer community through their research accomplishments.
Past AACI Distinguished Scientist honorees include Drs. Paula D. Bos; Patricia LoRusso; Elizabeth M. Jaffee; Judy E. Garber; William G. Kaelin, Jr.; Douglas R. Lowy; Charles Perou; Carl June; James Allison; and Lewis Cantley.
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All faculty and staff at AACI member cancer centers are eligible to submit nominations
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Eligible nominees will be considered based on satisfactory completion of the nomination form, which should include a detailed description of how the nominee has made an enduring impact on the progress of cancer research or patient care
The AACI Distinguished Scientist Award will be presented in October during the 2026 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting in Chicago. The awardee will be invited to deliver a keynote presentation to meeting attendees.
Previous nominations may be resubmitted for consideration. In the event that there is no nomination or no nominee meets the award criteria, no award will be made for that cycle.
February 2, 2026
Call for nominations announced to AACI members
February 23, 2026
Nominations due for all AACI awards
March 6, 2026
Board of Directors to vote on award recipients
March 24, 2026
Notify award recipients by email
April 7, 2026
Deadline for awardee to acknowledge/accept award nomination
April 24, 2026
Deadline for awardee to submit bio and headshot to AACI
Summer 2026
Award recipients announced
October 2026
Award presented during the 2026 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting in Chicago
Please note: all dates are subject to change.
2025 Recipient Spotlight
Thomas F. Gajewski, MD, PhD
Thomas F. Gajewski, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized leader in the field of cancer immunotherapy, with a special interest in the development of immunotherapies against melanoma and other cancers.
For over 25 years Dr. Gajewski has identified fundamental mechanisms of the anti-tumor immune response and applied that information to novel immunotherapeutic interventions in patients to understand mechanisms of resistance. This iterative cycle has led Dr. Gajewski to make a series of fundamental discoveries, contributing to new drug development in the clinic. A creative and prolific investigator, he has established several key biologic principles that have far-reaching implications for continued clinical advancement.
Dr. Gajewski has published 295 papers, 26 book chapters, and two co-authored books, with an H-index of 113. He serves as an editor for Cancer Research and as a founding editor of the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer. Dr. Gakjewski is immediate past president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer and has served on the program committees for the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. He chaired the CII study section at the National Institutes of Health, was appointed distinguished professor at The University of Chicago, received the AbbVie Foundation Endowed Professorship in Cancer Immunotherapy and he ACS Plangere Immunotherapy Professorship, and was honored with awards for tumor immunology, immuno-oncology, and melanoma research, among others.