Board of Trustees Appoints Mark L. Tykocinski, MD, as President of Thomas Jefferson University
Mark L. Tykocinski, MD, is a biomedical innovator, an educator, and a trailblazer in the world of academia and research. After 14 years as the Anthony F. and Gertrude M. DePalma Dean of Sidney Kimmel Medical College and more than a decade as provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, he has assumed the post of president of Thomas Jefferson University. He began his new post on July 1, 2022.
“Dr. Tykocinski is internationally respected for creating and leading a culture of transformation in education, research, clinical science, and academic administration. He is a person of extraordinary vision and creativity, committed to using innovation as a catalyst for growth, organizational vitality, and excellence,” says Patricia D. Wellenbach, chair of the Jefferson Board of Trustees.
Tykocinski joined Jefferson in 2008 as dean of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College and president of Jefferson University Physicians. In 2014 his role was expanded to include serving as the university’s provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
Over the past 14 years, Tykocinski guided the university and SKMC through numerous milestones, including Jefferson’s merger with Philadelphia University in 2017, which enabled the institution to expand its professional graduate education offerings and develop a multi-campus presence.
He also was instrumental in creating the transformational JeffMD curriculum, along with a pioneering Medicine+ co-curriculum. He tripled Jefferson’s annual extramural research that emphasized collaborative discovery and research in areas such as computational medicine; bioenergetics; vaccines; and oncological, rehabilitative, and brain sciences.
Under Tykocinski’s leadership, Jefferson launched eight Global Centers, elevating Jefferson’s international profile and catalyzing a series of first-of-its-kind global initiatives.
“As proud as I am of what we have accomplished at Thomas Jefferson University so far, it is only the beginning,” says Dr. Tykocinski of his appointment. “I’m grateful to Chair Wellenbach and the board for this opportunity to lead the university into the future.”
In addition to his achievements as an academic leader, Tykocinski is a biomedical innovator whose focus has been on pioneering unique immunotherapeutic strategies that invoke engineered proteins and cells. His scientific accomplishments include designing several novel classes of fusion proteins with therapeutic potential for cancer and autoimmunity. One that is geared to cancer immunotherapy has now entered clinical trials, and more will soon follow, through the biotech startup he founded. He has also made seminal contributions to the field of gene therapy.
Tykocinski holds a series of patents related to protein and cellular engineering and is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
“For more than a decade, Dr. Tykocinski has worked to advance Thomas Jefferson University—its academic programs, programmatic research, and clinical prowess—with dual focus on scale and distinction. He has used his vision and own deep experience to help guide the university to a place of strength, now with international recognition and with more than 8,400 students across 10 colleges,” says H. Richard Haverstick, Jr., who had served as interim president of Thomas Jefferson and interim CEO of Jefferson Health.. “We are thrilled to call Mark our new president and fully support him as he leads the university into its next chapter.”
Prior to joining Jefferson, Dr. Tykocinski spent a decade at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as the Simon Flexner Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Previously, he spent 15 years at Case Western Reserve University; he was the founding director of its Gene Therapy Facility.
Tykocinski earned a BA in biology magna cum laude from Yale University and was awarded his MD from New York University. He completed an internal medicine internship at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, residency training in anatomic pathology in the Department of Pathology at New York University, and a research fellowship at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.