Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis, M.D., Sc.D., Ph.D. (Hon.), Res. ’94, is the Robert C. Hickey Chair in Clinical Care and Deputy Head for Research in the Division of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas. He received his medical degree summa cum laude from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Dr. Kontoyiannis was trained in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he served as a chief medical resident. He was subsequently trained as a clinical fellow in infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and obtained a master’s in clinical sciences from Harvard Medical School. He spent three years at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Sciences and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a fellow in the Harvard MIT Clinical Investigators Training Program.
Dr. Kontoyiannis is considered one of the leading mycology experts worldwide with an H index of 137 and over 79000 citations. He is the recipient of many institutional, national and international awards, such as the 2004 American Society for Microbiology Award for Outstanding Research in the Pathogenesis of Microbial Diseases (mentor), the 2013 Billy Cooper Memorial Award from the Medical Mycology Society of Americas, the 2015 Drouhet Medal from the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM), the 2016 Max Littmann Medical Mycology Society of New York Award, emeritus member of Paul-Ehrlich-Society (2016), the 2025 George K. Daikos Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hellenic Infectious Diseases Society, the 2019 Rhoda Benham Award, and the 2025 Lucille Georg Award from the International Society of Human and Animal Mycology.
Dr. Kontoyiannis was awarded an honorary Ph.D. (Honoris Causa) from the National Kapodistrian University in Athens, Greece, in 2017. He was designated an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer from 2014–2016. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), a fellow elect of the American Academy of Microbiology, fellow of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and an inaugural lifetime fellow of the ECMM. Dr. Kontoyiannis is the past president of the Immunocompromised Host Society (2016–2018). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member in Class II–Medicine of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Academia Scientiarium et Artium Europaea), and was elected in 2023 to the Association of American Physicians. He received the 2018 Award for Excellence in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases of the ESCMID. In 2023, he received the IDSA Citation Award from IDSA and the Harriet P. Dustan Award for Outstanding Work in Science as Related to Medicine from the ACP for 2023–2024. He is the leader of the ECMM Diamond Excellence in Mycology Center at MDACC, the only center in the United States to have received such a designation from the ECMM. Dr. Dimitrios Kontoyiannis’s work at MD Anderson Cancer Center has had a profound impact on patient care, especially for those with cancer and undergoing cell transplantation, who are highly vulnerable to invasive fungal infections (IFIs). He is the current president of the Mycoses Study Group Education Consortium (2024–2026) and a cofounder of the International Society for Fungal Immunotherapy.
