Amar U. Kishan, MD

Dr. Amar U. Kishan, Professor, is the Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Radiation Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Kishan joined the faculty in 2017 as an Assistant Professor in Radiation Oncology and Urology. He was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2023, and has served as the Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research and the Chief of the Genitourinary Service since 2019. Dr. Kishan specializes in the utilization of radiation to treat genitourinary malignancies (particularly cancers of the prostate and bladder). He has received numerous accolades for his clinical service, including the 2021 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine award and the 2024 UCLA Exceptional Physician award. He also has an extensive research background and has published over 265 manuscripts, including lead authorship publications in JAMA, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, European Urology, Cancer Cell, and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics. He has received extensive grant support, including funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the American Society of Radiation Oncology, the Radiological Society of North America, the Radiation Oncology Institute, and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer. He runs an active clinical and translational research program and has spearheaded multiple innovative clinical trials in radiation oncology.

Dr. Kishan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology and Public Health. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where he graduated magna cum laude from the joint Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program. During medical school, he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship to study tumor metabolism in the laboratory. He subsequently completed his internship training at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, where he was recognized as the H.H. Jones Intern of the Year. He then completed his residency training in radiation oncology at UCLA in 2017.