Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee named as USC 2018 commencement speaker

Siddhartha Mukherjee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer will be the 2018 commencement speaker, USC announced on Thursday.

The 135th annual commencement ceremony will take place on May 11.

Mukherjee, an oncologist and assistant professor at Columbia University, is known for his pioneering research and writings that look into the history of cancer. He currently serves as the editor-in-chief of Tonic, the health news section of Vice Media and has had his work featured in publications such as The New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mukherjee rose to prominence in 2011 when he received the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. The Emperor of all Maladies has been featured in TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the last century and was the basis of a documentary series by Ken Burns.

He currently serves as a cancer physician at the Columbia University Medical Center where he works to develop new, innovative treatments.

Mukherjee, a Rhodes Scholar, holds degrees from Stanford University, Harvard Medical School and University of Oxford.

His latest work, The Gene: An Intimate History, was published in May 2016 and explores how genetic composition helps define individual human experience.