Clarkson, Bayard

Scope Note: Doctor Bayard Delafield Clarkson, born on July 15, 1926, in New York City, was a pioneer of cancer chemotherapy and played a pivotal role in expanding MSK’s research in leukemia. After graduating from Yale University, he received this medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1952. His research focused on developing curative therapies for various types of cancer. His laboratory studied the cellular kinetics of growth and differentiation of normal, leukemic, and other cancer stem and progenitor cells. In his career, he made significant contributions to the understanding of cancer biology, especially in the area of cancer stem cells. Clarkson began working at Memorial Sloan Kettering part time while he was a resident at New York Hospital in the early 1950s and then full time as the first Mary Lasker Fellow in Clinical Chemotherapy in 1958. Clarkson went on to hold many positions at Memorial Hospital, including Chief of the Hematology Service at Memorial Hospital in 1970, Chief of the Hematology/ Lymphoma Service from 1975 to 1989, Director of the Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship Training Program in 1976, and Associate Chairman for Research in 1977. Among his other appointments, he served as President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 1973 and was a founding member of the American Association for Cancer Research in the late 1970s. He became an Emeritus Member of the Leukemia Service in the Department of Medicine at MSKCC. He died in 2019.

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