Mary Beckerle, PhD
Ralph E. and Willia T. Main Presidential Professor
Associate Vice President of Cancer Affairs, University of Utah
Executive Director, Huntsman Cancer Institute
Mary Beckerle, PhD, has served as executive director of Huntsman Cancer Institute since 2006, and she was recently appointed as Associate Vice President for Cancer Affairs at the University of Utah. Beckerle joined the faculty of the University of Utah in 1986, and is a distinguished professor of biology and oncological sciences. She earned her PhD in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she was the recipient of a Danforth Fellowship, and completed post-doctoral research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Beckerle is a noted cell biologist, a nationally recognized researcher, a mentor and teacher to students and postdoctoral fellows, and an experienced administrator. In the field of cell biology, her research has defined the molecular machinery that controls cell movement activity critical for organ formation, wound healing, and tumor metastasis. Her research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society for over 20 years. She guided graduate education at the University of Utah as the director of the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Molecular Biology for two years. Her dedication to teaching has been recognized in her being honored with the University of Utah’s Biology Award for Excellence in Teaching – a nomination made by her students, many of whom now hold scientific positions nationwide as faculty members or researchers. In addition, Beckerle developed the Multidisciplinary Cancer Research Training Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah and served for several years as principal investigator of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant that supports this cancer-focused training initiative. Beckerle is the principal investigator of the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) which provides core research support and Huntsman Cancer Institute’s prestigious NCI-designation as a Cancer Center. In her role on this grant, she oversees a cancer research portfolio comprised of five cancer research programs that include over 135 investigators.
An active participant in national and international scientific affairs, Mary served as president of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) in 2006. In 2007, as chair of the ASCB International Affairs Committee, she secured funds from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to support the development of a training program in Africa for cell biology. She has served on strategic planning and peer review committees for the National Institutes of Health, and currently serves on the Board of the Coalition for Life Sciences, the Scientific Review Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee to the Director, and the American Cancer Society Council for Extramural Grants. Her impact further extends internationally via dozens of invited scientific lectures and presentations she has given to groups overseas during her career, and she was recently appointed to serve on the National Centre for Biological Sciences Management Board in Bangalore, India.
In 2000, she was appointed as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Rotschild-Yvette Mayent Award Scholar at the Curie Institute in Paris. In addition, Beckerle has been honored as a recipient of the Utah Governor’s Award for Science and Technology, an American Cancer Society Sword of Hope award, and in 2007, she was presented with the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the most prestigious award given to University of Utah faculty members. She was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.