Brent Stockwell

Brent R. Stockwell, PhD, is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, and Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences, Columbia University, and Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His research involves the discovery of small molecules that can be used to understand and treat cancer and neurodegeneration, with a focus on biochemical mechanisms governing cell death. In a series of papers from 2003-2012, Dr. Stockwell discovered compounds that activate a previously unrecognized form of cell death that he termed ferroptosis. His lab defined key mechanisms governing ferroptosis, its therapeutic implications, and key reagents for studying this new form of cell death. Dr. Stockwell has received numerous awards, including being elected to the US National Academy of Medicine, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist Award, the BioAccelerate NYC Prize, the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award, the Great Teacher of Columbia College Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, the Dean Peter Awn Commitment to the LGBTQ community Faculty Award, and an NCI R35 Outstanding Investigator Award. He has been in the top one percent of highly cited researchers the last four years and was named as one of the 50 most influential life science individuals in New York. He has published >190 scientific articles, been awarded 23 US patents, and received >50 research grants for >$40 million.