Kornelia Polyak, M.D., Ph.D.

Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and a co-leader of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center Cancer Cell Biology Program. Dr. Polyak is an internationally recognized leader of breast cancer research. Her laboratory is dedicated to improving the clinical management of breast cancer patients by understanding molecular and cellular determinants of breast cancer risk and tumor evolution. Dr. Polyak has devoted much effort to develop new ways to study tumors and to apply interdisciplinary approaches. Dr. Polyak has received numerous awards including the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, and the 14th Rosalind E. Franklin Award for Women in Science. She is a recipient of the NCI Outstanding Investigator award (2015 and 2022) and received a Distinguished Alumna Award from Weil-Cornell in 2020. Dr. Polyak is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the AACR Academy of Fellows, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also an American Cancer Society Research Professor and received the 2023 AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research award.