Simon N. Powell

Simon N. Powell (born February 1955) is a British cancer researcher, residing in the United States. Powell is known for his research in molecular mechanisms that underlie a cancer cell’s vulnerability to DNA damage during radiation or chemotherapy and the therapeutic approaches that result from this research. He has conducted research on the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, which have been linked with an increased risk of female breast cancer. Simon Powell and his colleagues have developed a new test that will let physicians interpet how patients respond to radiation and guide treatment decisions. They are now exploring the clinical application of the test in a number of different cancers including breast, ovarian and pancreatic.

Biography
Powell was born on February 13, 1955 in Manchester, England. He obtained his B.A. at the University of Oxford and initially planned to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience, however his career path shifted during an elective internship under Sir Michael Peckham, a professor of oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Inspired by Peckham's ability to combine both clinical and basic research, Powell decided to follow his example and specialize in oncology. Powell received the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S.) (the British equivalent of the M.D. degree) in 1981 from the University of London and went on to complete his Ph.D. there in 1991, holding residencies at Whittington Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital in London and a fellowship at the Royal Marsden Hospital before being recruited and settling in America.

At Harvard Medical School Powell held a fellowship in 1991, becoming an instructor in 1992 and associate professor of radiation oncology in 1998. From 2004 to 2008 he served as professor and head of Radiation therapy/radiation oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Powell is currently a professor of Molecular Biology at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

In 2008, Powell moved to New York to become a member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the Molecular Biology Program at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. He was also appointed to the faculties of the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Cornell Medical School, Weil Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

Powell has been a principal investigator or co-investigator on federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute since 1992. Some of Powell’s federal and private research grant projects have been in DNA Recombinational Repair: Role of the p53 Tumor Suppressor Protein DNA Recombinational Repair for the NCI, Targeting DNA Repair Deficiencies in Human Breast Cancer for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and Genomic Determinants of Radio Sensitivity from the Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center/MSKCC.

In addition to his academic, clinical and research work Powell was an associate editor at the International Journal of Cancer for eight years and associate editor for 5 years at the journal of Radiation Research. Powell is currently serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Cancer Biology and Therapy and has held the position since 2001. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles and 13 book chapters.

Career
Powell is chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with a joint appointment in Sloan-Kettering Institute’s Molecular Biology Program. He also holds the Enid A. Haupt Chair in Radiation Oncology at the Center.

Before joining Sloan-Kettering in June 2008, Powell was head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Previously he was with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He was clinical director of the Gillette Center for Women’s Cancers, co-leader of the Harvard Breast Cancer Research Program, and leader of the DNA Repair/Radiation Biology Program.

Powell was a recipient of the European Society for Theapeutic Radiology and Oncology (E.S.T.R.O.) Varian Award in 1990. In 2008, Powell was elected Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Radiation Oncology. He is an elected Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the [Royal College of Radiologists of the United Kingdom. Powell is a member of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology, Radiation Research Society and the American Association for Cancer Research. His most recent memberships were in 2009 to the New York Academy of Sciences and the Radiological Society of North American.

Powell resides in New York City. He is board certified in radiation oncology and internal medicine (both UK), and radiation oncology (U.S.).