Dr. John C. Byrd ’87 received the Hendrix Odyssey Medal for Research. He is a nationally known researcher and clinical specialist in leukemia and other hematologic malignancies at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute; he is also the head of the Division of Hematology. He is a professor of medicine and medicinal chemistry and holds the D. Warren Brown Chair in Leukemia Research.
After graduating from Hendrix, Dr. Byrd received his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. His education and experience continued in hematology and oncology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University before he moved to Columbus to join the faculty in Ohio State’s College of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Byrd has more than 325 publications in the area of leukemia and experimental therapeutics research. He runs a highly translational laboratory focused on drug development in CLL and related lymphoproliferative disorders. He has been part of the successful development of multiple acute myeloid leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia therapeutics. At a national level, Dr. Byrd is the co-chair of the Leukemia Committee and Leukemia Correlative Science Committee in the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and a member of the NCI Leukemia Steering Committee.
Despite his passion for clinical and translational research, he spends eight to 12 hours each week in the clinic providing care for patients with CLL and other types of leukemia.