On Aug. 16, 2006, President Bush announced that he intended to appoint John E. Niederhuber, M.D., to be the 13th director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Niederhuber has been a professor, cancer center director, National Cancer Advisory Board chair, external advisor to the NCI, grant reviewer, and laboratory investigator supported by NCI and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Before joining NCI in a full-time capacity, Niederhuber was a professor of surgery and oncology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine in Madison.