Cancer center director named

Ruben A. Mesa, M.D., was named director of the UT Health San Antonio Cancer Center. Previously, he was professor of medicine and chair of the Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.

Dr. Mesa has been involved in myeloproliferative neoplasms research for more than 20 years, and has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator of more than 70 clinical trials for patients. He has led efforts in obtaining Food and Drug Administration approval for several new cancer drugs.

Dr. Mesa earned his Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering and physiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his medical degree, completed his residency in internal medicine and fulfilled his fellowship in hematology/medical oncology from the Mayo Graduate School at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota.

He began his career in 1991 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where he worked for 18 years before moving eight years ago to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He was named deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in 2012. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine and medical oncology.