W. Marston Linehan, M.D. received his internship, residency and fellowship training Duke University Medical Center. He began his career at the National Cancer Institute in 1982 with positions as Senior Investigator and Urologist-in-Charge, NCI. He is Chief of the Urologic Oncology Branch at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He has had a long standing interest in identification of the genetic basis of cancer of the kidney. By studying patients and families with kidney cancer, he and his colleagues identified the VHL gene for von Hippel-Lindau syndrome and showed that the VHL gene is also the gene for clear cell renal cell carcinoma. He and his colleagues identified the gene for Hereditary Papillary Renal Carcinoma (MET oncogene, type I papillary renal carcinoma) the FLCN gene (Birt Hogg Dubé syndrome, chromophobe renal carcinoma), the gene for TFE3 kidney cancer, IDH2 kidney cancer and described the germline fumarate hydratase and succinate dehydrogenase B/C/D mutations in the North American families with hereditary leiomyomatosis renal cell carcinoma (HLRCC) and SDH-RCC and described five new diseases. This work has provided the basis for the development of new therapeutic strategies for the different types of kidney cancer based on understanding the molecular pathway of the specific cancer genes associated with the different types of kidney cancer. He and his colleagues have defined the methods for surgical and clinical management of kidney cancer associated with the hereditary forms of kidney cancer, von Hippel Lindau, Hereditary Papillary Renal Carcinoma and Birt Hogg Dubé syndrome and Hereditary Leiomyomatosis Renal Cell Carcinoma and Succinate Dehydrogenase Renal Cell Carcinoma. Dr. Linehan and his colleagues’ work, showing that “VHL associates….with elongins B and C and…..that VHL is found in a complex with the CUL-2 proteins…..revealed a potential link between VHL and protein degradation”, was cited by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in 2019 as providing the critical foundation for the discovery of “How Cells Sense and Adapt to Oxygen Availability”. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, he has received the Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research from the American Association of Cancer Research, the Dr. Nathan Davis Award from the American Medical Association, the Lila Gruber Award for Cancer Research from the American Association of Dermatology, the NIH Director’s Award for discovery of the VHL Kidney Cancer and Oxygen Sensing Gene, the Barringer Medal from the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, the Gold Cystoscope Award, the Distinguished Contribution Award and the Ramon Guiteras Award from the American Urological Association, the Huggins Medal, the SUO Medal and the Whitmore Lecture Award from the Society of Urologic Oncology and the Andrew C. Novick Award from the Kidney Cancer Association.