Susan Perkins, Ph.D.

Acting Chief, Cancer Training Branch

Acting Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Training

Dr. Susan N. Perkins received her B.S. in biochemistry from North Carolina State University in 1979 and her doctorate in physiology from the University of Virginia in 1985, with further postdoctoral training in neuroendocrinology during fellowships at Stanford University and the Johns Hopkins University.

She was recruited to NCI in 1990, first as a Senior Staff Fellow and then as an Investigator in what is now the NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR). Her laboratory focused on the development of animal models to study cancer preventive strategies and interactions among nutritional factors, hormones, and genetic susceptibility to cancer. Subsequently, she was concurrently Associate Director of the NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program and a member of the NCI CCR Laboratory of Biosystems and Cancer (2000-2006) and then a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, before returning to NCI as a Program Director in the Cancer Training Branch in 2010.

Consistent with her long-time interests in cancer prevention and in the training of the next generation of scientists, Dr. Perkins oversees a grant portfolio of mentored career development awards and institutional training awards.