Awards

President's Medal for Excellence - 2021

Indianapolis, Indiana

Presenter: Michael A. McRobbie

Bicentennial Medal - 2019

Titled Professor - 2013

Walter J. Daly Professor

About Jay L. Hess

Dr. Jay L. Hess is the vice president for university clinical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, and Walter J. Daly Professor of Medicine at Indiana University. Before joining Indiana, he was the Carl Weller Professor and chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan. He previously served as director of Hematopathology at the University of Pennsylvania and as Assistant Professor of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Hess received a B.A. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University, M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a certificate in business administration from Wharton and an M.H.S.A degree from the University of Michigan School Of Public Health. He completed residency training in anatomic pathology and fellowships in hematopathology and surgical pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

A board-certified hematopathologist and author of over 100 scientific papers and book chapters, Dr. Hess is considered one of the nation's leaders in the epigenetics of leukemia. His laboratory has done some of the most seminal work on the mechanisms of transformation by the mixed lineage leukemia protein MLL and its downstream targets, the HOX proteins. While chair at Michigan he assembled and led an interdisciplinary research team that worked to develop epigenetically-targeted therapeutics for acute leukemia.

In 2007, Dr. Hess helped establish the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology led by Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan, one of the leading research centers for biomarker discovery in the nation. He created one of the first pathology informatics divisions in the nation, and led the University of Michigan Health Care System strategy implementation in personalized medicine. In addition, he co-founded and chaired the Board of Paradigm, a sequencing-based not for profit diagnostics company that provides next generation sequencing and data analysis to improve care for cancer patients. Dr. Hess serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He also currently serves on a number of boards including BioCrossroads and the Regenstrief Institute

Dr. Hess received the IU Bicentennial Medal in August 2019 in recognition of his distinguished service as vice president and dean of the School of Medicine, and member of the president's executive cabinet.