On Dec. 8, 1990, E. Donnall Thomas of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Joseph E. Murray of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital jointly received the Nobel Prize for “for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.”

Thomas joined the faculty of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 1974 as its first director of medical oncology. He later became associate director and eventually director of the Center’s Clinical Research Division. He stepped down from that position at age 70 in 1990 and officially retired from the Hutchinson Center in 2002.