Bert Vogelstein grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, home of Johns Hopkins University and its world-famous School of Medicine. Even as a child he was aware of the medical school's great reputation, but as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, he chose to major in mathematics, graduating summa cum laude and winning the school's Rosenbaum Award for undergraduate work in Semitic languages and literature. After briefly pursuing post-graduate studies in mathematics he felt called on to pursue a calling that would help other people more directly. He applied, and was admitted, to Johns Hopkins as a medical student. He received his medical degree in 1974 and remained at Hopkins for his internship, and for a residency in pediatrics. His first encounters with cancer-stricken children moved him to undertake a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, where he could explore the latest techniques in molecular biology. The young cancer specialist returned to Johns Hopkins as Assistant Professor of Oncology. At Hopkins, he led the team that discovered the specific mutations responsible for cancer of the colon, a dramatic breakthrough in our understanding of the genetic basis of cancer. Dr. Vogelstein now holds a joint appointment in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins. His pioneering studies of the genetic causes of human cancer have made him one of the most cited scientific authorities in the world, and have won him many awards, including the Medal of Honor of the American Cancer Society and the Lounsbery Award of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He also holds editorial positions at Science and the New England Journal of Medicine.
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