HMS alumnus Siddhartha Mukherjee wins Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction

Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D. '00, is honored for The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

Joining a long and notable list of Harvard-affiliated physicians whose skill with words has enabled them to educate audiences far beyond their immediate circles of patients and colleagues, Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D. '00, has been awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for a work of general nonfiction for his book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Scribner). The Pulitzer judges praised the work as “an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science.”

Mukherjee is currently an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University; his lab "works on acute myeloid leukemia and pre-leukemic diseases, such as myelodysplasia (MDS)," seeking to “understand the pathogenesis of AML and MDS in order to develop novel drugs” against them.

 

Profiles from our archives of Atul Gawande and Jerome Groopman offer introductions to other Harvard-affiliated physician-authors. 

You might also like

Conan O’Brien Named Harvard’s 2026 Commencement Speaker

The comedian, host, and 1985 graduate will deliver remarks at the May 28 ceremony. 

How a Harvard Hockey Legend Became a Needlepoint Artist

Joe Bertagna’s retirement project recreates figures from Boston sports history.

Inside Harvard’s Most Egalitarian School

The Extension School is open to everyone. Expect to work—hard.

Most popular

Ben S. Bernanke ’75 Shares Economics Nobel

Three scholars honored for work on banking and financial crises.

Massachusetts General Hospital's resident mummy undergoes restoration and study

MGH's resident mummy undergoes restoration and a medical exam.

Mindfulness—the unconventional research of psychologist Ellen Langer

Psychologist Ellen Langer's unconventional research. Plus, read about applying mindfulness techniques to eating.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman gazes at large decorative letters with her reflection and two stylized faces beside them.

The True Cost of Grade Inflation at Harvard

How an abundance of A’s created “the most stressed-out world of all.”

A woman in a black blazer holds a bottle of beer.

Introductions: Mallika Monteiro

A conversation with a beer industry executive

Firefighters battling flames at a red building, surrounded by smoke and onlookers.

Yesterday’s News

How a book on fighting the “Devill World” survived Harvard’s historic fire.