Katherine K. Matthay

Dr. Katherine Matthay is one of the world's leading specialists in care for childhood cancer and in research on treatments. She directs a national study of the Children's Oncology Group (a research collaboration supported by the National Cancer Institute) to test new therapies for neuroblastoma, a cancer that develops in nerve cells and most often affects young children. She and her colleagues demonstrated that an innovative treatment – which combined chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation and other therapies – could significantly improve outcomes for patients with neuroblastoma.

After earning an undergraduate degree in chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, Matthay earned her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. She completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver and a fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at UCSF.