RICHARD RIFKIND

RIFKIND--Richard A. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) community notes with sadness the passing of Richard A. Rifkind, MD. As Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) from 1983 to 2000, he took SKI to new heights of academic excellence. A prolific scientist, consummate leader, and champion of education, Dr. Rifkind's contributions to SKI were extraordinary. He led a restructuring of SKI into programs focused on major areas of scientific inquiry, and recruited and nourished a faculty of outstanding scientists. He personally directed laboratory studies that have helped shape contemporary developmental biology, investigating the fundamental issues involving the differentiation of blood cells and identifying chemical agents that could steer cancer cells back to normal. This work would lead to the development of the first HDAC inhibitor, vorinostat (Zolinza). An advocate of SKI's educational mission, Dr. Rifkind supported a vibrant graduate program for scientists and initiated new research training opportunities for physicians. In honor of his father, a celebrated lawyer and political advisor, he funded and established the Simon H. Rifkind Chair in Molecular Biology at MSK. Dr. Rifkind was also founder and chairman of the New York Structural Biology Center, a state-of-the-art research center that opened in 2002 to increase the understanding of proteins that play a role in diseases such as cancer. We will be forever thankful for Dr. Rifkind's creativity, spirit of collaboration, and rigorous standards for scientific excellence, as well as his profound sense of humanity and compassion. We extend our sincere condolences to the Rifkind family. Joan Massague, Director, Sloan Kettering Institute; Craig B. Thompson, President and CEO Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center