Chief Emeritus, Photodynamic Therapy Center
Cancer Research Scientist, Full Member, RPCI
Cell Stress Biology, Research Professor
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Roswell Park Graduate Division, University at Buffalo
Research Professor of Radiation Oncology with a joint appointment Division of Surgery, School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo

President & Research Director, The Oncologic Foundation of Buffalo
Dr. Thomas J. Dougherty joined the staff of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in 1970, as a Research Associate in the Department of Experimental Biology. The following year, he was appointed Cancer Research Scientist and Head of Radiation Biology, Department of Radiation Medicine, and was appointed Chief, Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) Center, 1988. He also is a Research Professor, Molecular & Cellular Biophysics, Roswell Park Graduate Division, University at Buffalo (UB), Research Professor of Radiation Oncology, UB School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, and President & Research Director, The Oncologic Foundation of Buffalo. Dr. Dougherty earned his doctoral degree in Physical Organic Chemistry at Ohio State University, Columbus, in 1959.

Dr. Dougherty has received numerous awards and honors including, among others, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Thomas B. Tomasi Achievement Award; the Schoellkopf Award, American Chemical Society, Western New York Chapter; D’Youville College Award for Achievement in Health Care; and Inventor of the Year Award, Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association and the Technical Societies Council. He was granted an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Canisius College in 1991, and was the recipient of the Sullivant Award for contributions to education by Ohio State University in 1995.

Dr Dougherty’s research interests focus on basic and clinical research in photodynamic therapy (PDT), which he developed at RPCI and is now approved by health agencies worldwide for the treatment of bladder, esophageal and lung cancers. Current research interests include clinical trials of a newly developed drug for PDT; quantitative studies to allow rational design of new photosensitizing drugs; Photofrin®-mediated PDT as an adjuvant to neurosurgery in an attempt to destroy tumor cells beyond the margin of surgical resection; parabolic quantitative structure-activity relationships and PDT; and purpurinimides as photosensitizers.

Dr. Dougherty is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, American Chemical Society, American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery, American Society for Photobiology, European Society for Photobiology, International Photodynamic Association, and Radiation Research Society. Dr Dougherty has authored or co-authored more than 175 journal publications, book chapters and abstracts, and holds 25 patents. He is Assistant Editor of International Photodynamics and serves on the editorial boards of Lasers in Surgery and Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Laser Medicine & Surgery. He is a reviewer for the British Journal of Cancer, Cancer Research, European Journal of Cancer, International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Journal of Surgical Oncology, New England Journal of Medicine, and Photochemistry and Photobiology. Dr. Dougherty also is a grant reviewer for the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Dr. Dougherty’s work has been the subject of several newspaper articles and television news programs, as well as a 30-minute special on CBS describing his trip to China in 1983 to lecture on photodynamic therapy.