News From the Board of Governors: February 2026

Joseph Contessa, an internationally recognized physician-scientist whose work bridges laboratory discovery and patient care, has been appointed the Omar Boraie Endowed Chair in Molecular Medicine at Rutgers University for a five-year renewable term.

The Omar Boraie Endowed Chair in Molecular Medicine was established through a gift from real-estate developer Omar Boraie to advance cancer research and its potential for translating scientific breakthroughs into patient therapies and to support New Brunswick in its transformation into a health care city. The gift was matched by an anonymous donor as part of the fundraising campaign, Our Rutgers, Our Future: A Campaign for Excellence .

Contessa is the chair of radiation oncology for the Rutgers Cancer Institute, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He also serves as associate director for translational research at the Rutgers Cancer Institute, New Jersey's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, together with RWJBarnabas Health.

Contessa's research focuses on defining the adaptive mechanisms tumors use to become resistant to therapy, with the goal of identifying new therapeutic approaches in oncology. His work has advanced understanding of how tumors respond to radiation and how targeted molecular interventions may improve therapeutic outcomes. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.

Read the full release.