William L Hwang, MD, PhD

Dr. Hwang is a physician-scientist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. He specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers and his research program is focused on elucidating the interactions between pancreatic cancer cells and their microenvironment at high resolution using single-cell and spatial genomics, genetically-engineered mouse models, and 3D organoid co-cultures. Dr. Hwang is particularly interested in studying (1) tumor-nerve dialogue, which is remarkably important in the pathogenesis of many cancers but understudied; (2) cell-state plasticity involved in tumorigenesis and therapeutic resistance; and (3) mechanisms by which radiotherapy and systemic therapies reprogram the tumor microenvironment and how these changes may be harnessed to improve therapeutic strategies. His research has been recognized with the Seidman Prize for Outstanding Senior Medical Student Thesis, MGH Clinical Research Award, William Shipley Research Award, Conquer Cancer Foundation/American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award, and Hopper Belmont Foundation Inspiration Award. He was named a 2022 NextGen Star by the American Association for Cancer Research.

Dr. Hwang holds bachelor's degrees in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Physics from Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar. He completed a master's degree at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his MD (summa cum laude) at Harvard Medical School as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and PhD in Biophysics at Harvard University. Dr. Hwang completed his internship in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital where he received the Resident Teaching Award in Medicine, and residency training in the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program.