Dr. Andrew S. Kraft, a prostate cancer physician-scientist and cancer center administrator, has been named the Sydney E. Salmon endowed chair and director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center and associate vice president for oncology programs for the UA Health Sciences Center. In addition, Kraft joins the University as a tenured professor of medicine in the department of Medicine's Division of Hematology/Oncology and senior associate dean for translational research in the College of Medicine.

Kraft will start in September. He replaces Anne E. Cress, who was interim director of the UA Cancer Center since July 2013.

Kraft will have overall responsibility for the UA Cancer Center’s $35million research portfolio and oversight of oncology clinical operations in Tucson, in partnership with the UA Health Network. He also will oversee the development and implementation of the clinical and clinical research operations at the new UA Cancer Center facility in Phoenix, in collaboration with Dignity Health/St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. This new facility is slated for completion in summer 2015.

Previously, Kraft was chief of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. He also was associate director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Kraft is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He also is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Biologic Chemists.