ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP AT PITT SCHOOL OF MEDICINE HONORS DR. LAWRENCE ELLIS

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 5 -- The University of Pittsburgh has received a gift from an anonymous donor to establish the Lawrence Ellis Chair in Hematology and Oncology in the School of Medicine. Dr. Donald L. Trump, chief of the Division of Hematology - Oncology and professor of medicine and urology in the School of Medicine, and deputy director for clinical investigations at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, has been selected as the first holder of the Ellis Chair.

Named in honor of Lawrence D. Ellis, a distinguished alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the chair was made possible through the generosity of a donor who describes himself as "a grateful patient," but who prefers to remain anonymous.

"There is no question that the University, working together with the UPMC Health System, has a profound impact, not only on the broader direction of medical research, but also on improving the health and well being of countless individuals right here in Western Pennsylvania," Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg said. "We are deeply grateful to the donor of the Ellis Chair, because his generosity will help ensure that others will be the beneficiaries of both the pioneering efforts in health care research being carried out here at the University of Pittsburgh and the world class medical treatment being provided by our medical faculty through the UPMC Health System."

Dr. Ellis has been engaged in the practice of medicine, specializing in hematology and oncology, for more than 30 years while serving on the clinical faculty of the School of Medicine since 1964 and the full-time faculty since 1994. He currently holds the title of professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and medical director of the UPMC Health System Downtown, and he has contributed more than 40 publications to the medical literature in the specialty of hematology. A graduate of the Pitt School of Medicine, Dr. Ellis received his bachelor of science degree in professional studies from the University of Notre Dame in 1954.

Dr. Trump, who is the inaugural holder the Ellis Chair, joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1992. He is recognized as an international authority in prostate cancer and clinical evaluation of new anticancer drugs. The author or co-author of numerous chapters in leading text books on oncology, he has published more than 160 papers in peer reviewed cancer journals, and has received peer reviewed funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Defense. Dr. Trump received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Johns Hopkins University.

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