Irving L. Weissman, MD

Dr. Irving L. Weissman is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research, Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, and by courtesy, a Professor of Biology at the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. Dr. Weissman is also the founding director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, and before that, was the founding director of the Stanford Cancer Center and the immunology program at Stanford. He was president of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) from 1994 to 1995 and served on the AAI Council from 1989 to 1996. Dr. Weissman was elected a Distinguished Fellow of AAI in 2019. He was also a founding member of the Transplantation Society and the International Society for Stem Cell Research, where he later served as President. As the first scientist to identify and isolate mammalian blood-forming stem cells in mice, Dr. Weissman is considered the father of hematopoiesis.

Dr. Weissman was raised in Great Falls, Montana, and started his scientific career at the McLaughlin Research Institute located there. He obtained his MD from Stanford University in 1965 after earning a BS from Montana State University in 1961.