Rate My Professor Don Cleveland

Don W. Cleveland is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, where he has served as Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine since 2008. He also heads the Laboratory for Cell Biology at the San Diego branch of Ludwig Cancer Research. Cleveland earned a B.S. in physics from New Mexico State University in 1972 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Princeton University in 1977. He completed postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco, from 1978 to 1981. From 1981 to 1995, he was on the faculty of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before joining UC San Diego in 1995.

Cleveland’s research focuses on genome rearrangement in cancer and mechanisms and therapies for human neurodegenerative diseases. His contributions include pioneering work on chromosome movement, cell-cycle control, neuronal cell development, and defects in inherited neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He has received numerous honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006, and the National Academy of Medicine in 2012. Additional recognitions include the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2018, the NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Award in 2018, and the E.B. Wilson Medal from the American Society for Cell Biology in 2022. Cleveland has authored or co-authored key works on microtubule-associated proteins, tubulin genes, and therapeutic approaches for conditions including Huntington’s disease and ALS. He previously served as President of the American Society for Cell Biology in 2013.