Neli Ulrich

Biography

Neli (Cornelia) Ulrich, MS, PhD, is Senior Director of Population Sciences at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) and a Karen and Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Professor in Cancer Research. She is Professor and Division Chief of Cancer Population Sciences in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Utah, and is a member of the HCI’s Cancer Center Director’s Cabinet with responsibilities for the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program, the Utah Population Database, the Genetic Counseling Shared Resource, the Cancer Biostatistics Shared Resource and the Biorepository and Molecular Pathology Shared Resource. Dr. Ulrich is a cancer epidemiologist whose research focuses on lifestyle and biologic factors in cancer prevention and cancer prognosis, particularly of colorectal cancer. She came to HCI from the German Cancer Research Center and National Center for Tumor Diseases, where she was Director, as well as Head of the Department of Preventive Oncology. She also continues to collaborate with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, her former research institution. Dr. Ulrich leads an interdisciplinary team of scientists on research related to the prevention, epidemiology, prognosis, and survivorship of cancer. Major research areas include  personalized cancer prevention with aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drugs; nutrition; connections between obesity, adipose tissue, and the progression of cancer; and the role of energy balance and physical activity in cancer prevention and cancer survivorship. Dr. Ulrich leads the ColoCare Study, a patient cohort of colorectal cancer is also Principal Investigator of the Huntsman Cancer Institute's Total Cancer Care Initiative as part of the ORIEN network of cancer centers. Dr. Ulrich has published more than 290 publications (h-index 60), including the book “Exercise, Energy Balance, and Cancer (Springer, 2012). She is an elected member to the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and serves on numerous national and international advisory boards, committees, and editorial boards, including several of the National Institutes of Health, International Agency for Research on Cancer and American Association of Cancer Research.

Research Interest

Population Sciences