Roswell Park Honors Dr. Edwin A. Mirand with Lifetime Achievement Award

Paying tribute to a man who helped steer the Institute through crucial junctures, Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Edwin A. Mirand, PhD, DSc, Vice President Emeritus for Educational Affairs and Senior Advisor to RPCI President and CEO Donald L. Trump, MD, FACS — one of the five RPCI presidents with whom Dr. Mirand has served.

“Dr. Mirand has been part of the fabric of Roswell Park Cancer Institute for nearly 60 years,” said Dr. Trump. “He helped to build and to lead the Institute at key points in its history, playing a critical role in planning and decision-making that ultimately benefited people far outside our immediate reach. Dr. Mirand has made incalculable contributions worldwide, and his lifelong commitment to Roswell Park, its patients and its mission is exemplary.”

Associated with RPCI since 1946, Dr. Mirand was appointed director of its Springville Laboratories in 1951. He went on to head RPCI’s departments of Biology, Viral Oncology and Biological Resources and its West Seneca Laboratories while establishing and expanding the Institute’s education programs. As Vice President of Educational Affairs and Dean of the Roswell Park Graduate Division of the University at Buffalo, he developed what would become the world’s longest-running summer program in cancer research for gifted and talented high school and college students.

Dr. Mirand’s vast knowledge of oncology policy and his political and scientific acumen positioned him as a national and international leader, in roles including President of the Association for Gnotobiotics and the International Society of Gnotobiology, Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI), and Secretary-General of the International Union Against Cancer’s (UICC’s) 13th International Cancer Congress, held in Seattle, WA in 1982.

In the early 1970s, he developed the first public cancer education program, the CAN-DIAL information line, under contract to the National Cancer Institute, and played an instrumental role in getting the National Cancer Act of 1971 passed. As a researcher, Dr. Mirand has made noteworthy contributions to the fields of viral carcinogenesis, erythropoiesis and gnotobiology, and developed the Hauschka-Mirand ICR germ-free mouse strain, which has been used in studies by the U.S. space program.

A Buffalo native and resident, Dr. Mirand is a graduate of the University at Buffalo, where he earned an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry and a master’s degree in biology; and of Syracuse University, from which he received a PhD in Medical Science in 1951.

Among the many awards and honors Dr. Mirand has received are the Billings Medal in Science from the American Medical Association, in 1963; the Merit Award from the UICC, in 1982; and the Special Recognition Award from the AACI, in 2004. He holds honorary doctorates from Niagara University and D’Youville College.

Photo courtesy of Roswell Park