Dr. Scott M. Lippman is Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Research and Care, and holder of the Chugai Pharmaceutical Endowed Chair in Cancer. He is a physician scientist and a national leader in cancer prevention and precision oncology. He also holds adjunct professorships at the Salk Institute, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Before UC San Diego, Dr. Lippman spent 24 years on the faculty of MD Anderson Cancer Center. There he chaired the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology and led the BATTLE trial, a multidisciplinary, molecularly guided lung cancer study that earned him the institution’s team science award. In 2012 he became Director of Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, the region’s only NCI designated comprehensive cancer center. He guided the center through two top scoring NCI renewals and earned it an Exceptional rating, a distinction held by only the top 1 percent of cancer centers nationwide. He also launched the University of California Cancer Consortium and the San Diego NCI Cancer Centers Council. In 2021 he moved into a broader university role to launch and lead the NCI sponsored PreCancer Genome Atlas, after helping lead the NCI Cancer Moonshot precancer atlas demonstration project. His research defines the genomic and immune drivers that turn precancer into invasive disease. It includes the first precision medicine trial in the precancer setting. Recently, he helped develop a deep learning AI platform that analyzes routine tissue slides, which led to a UC San Diego spinoff and several patent filings. The NIH has funded his work continuously since 1990.

Dr. Lippman earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He trained in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Harbor UCLA Medical Center, then completed fellowships in hematology and medical oncology at Stanford University and the University of Arizona. He is triple board certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology. He has published more than 450 peer reviewed research articles and serves as Editor in Chief of the AACR journal Cancer Prevention Research. He was the inaugural chair of the AACR Cancer Prevention Committee. He has served on the FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee and been elected to the boards of the AACR, the Association of American Cancer Institutes and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. His honors include the ASCO Statesman Award, the ASCO and American Cancer Society Award, and election to the Association of American Physicians.